


Three Little Words

by Deck Divination (astralpath)



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, High School, Humor, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-17
Updated: 2015-05-17
Packaged: 2018-02-17 18:02:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2318420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astralpath/pseuds/Deck%20Divination
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three little words. Eight letters. So little, but they mean so very much. So impossible to ignore. Once spoken, Atem certainly couldn't ignore them. Humor/Romangst</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Three Little Words

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally a single chapter posted on 2012/10/25 (interesting). Some readers expressed interest in seeing it extended, and I finally got around to it around July 2014 after a period of playing around with it. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> As per my personal quirk, Yami Yugi is called Atem in this story. Since I'm a fan of the Japanese anime, I just can't seem to bring myself to call him "Yami." My apologies if that rubs you the wrong way. (You're welcome to take me to task in a comment if you hate it.)
> 
> This story is active and concurrently posted elsewhere, see end notes for further details.

Three little words. Eight letters, not so many, but they held so much meaning.

So much temptation in so little!

The perfect trap.

And those three words, once spoken, were something that Atem could not possibly ignore.

His eyes, a brilliant, burning crimson flashed with an undeniable passion in response.

_I dare you!_

“I'll do it!” he affirmed, then turned and strode off with the utmost confidence.

Jonouchi scowled at Otogi for the briefest of moments, growling, “Are you _insane?!_ ” Then he stalked off after Atem, followed closely by Otogi.

“This I've gotta see!” exclaimed Otogi. “Why do you think I issued this challenge in the first place?”

As they strode through the halls, Honda caught sight of them. “What's up?” he asked.

“Don't tell him!” insisted Otogi, scanning their surroundings. “We can't afford to tip him off!”

“Tip who off? What are you talking about?”

“You'll see. Come with us.”

Jonouchi looked grim. “It's a dare.”

“A dare? Let me guess. Otogi dared Atem and he just couldn't resist, could he?”

“Of course he couldn't.”

“You look pretty pissed. This one must be bad. Dangerous?”

“Sort of.”

“Hm. That means … Crap. It's something stupid, like taking his clothes off in public, right?”

“Worse.”

“Worse than public nudity?”

“You got it.”

Honda scratched his head and followed them, trying to figure out what could be worse than public nudity. Then he realized where they were headed. “Are you crazy?” he asked. “This is the computer lab. That means—”

“That's right, and shut the hell up,” Otogi said amiably.

There, at a large lab table, sat none other than Kaiba Seto, so completely absorbed in his current robotics project that he didn't even notice the knot of students swiftly converging upon his location.

“Hello Kaiba.”

Piercing blue eyes swept up from table to Atem's face. His expression immediately morphed from mild curiosity to annoyed expectation. “Is this some sort of challenge?” he asked. “I really don't have time—”

“This will only take a minute. I don't want to duel you.”

“Then I don't understand what you're here for.”

Atem walked around the table so that he was standing next to Kaiba's chair and said, “Then I'll show you.”

Before Kaiba could say anything or react in any way, Atem leaned in and, grasping Kaiba's head firmly so that he couldn't get away, kissed him. Because of Kaiba's surprise, Atem caught him with his lips slightly parted, so the kiss was deeper than Atem expected to get away with.

Supremely stunned, Kaiba didn't respond at all for a moment, then he pushed Atem violently away … so violently, in fact, that his chair teetered backward and he had to catch himself. Rising to his feet with an equally sudden motion, a ruddy hue appeared at the acme of his cheeks.

Kaiba looked around and took in the expressions of Atem's three friends and quickly surmised what had occurred. “ _You—!_ ” he said in a low, hoarse breath that seethed with fury, then he turned and strode from the room, pale as snow save for the lingering bright blush rouging his cheekbones.

“That was priceless!” exclaimed Otogi, once Kaiba was fully out and away. “I have to hand it to you, Atem, you rose to the occasion. Open-mouthed, too. I didn't even specify that. What was it we agreed on? My surfboard? Totally worth it. Drop by after school. It's all yours.”

Atem was still looking at the door. “Totally not worth it.”

“I'll say,” said Jonouchi, scowling. “That was the grossest thing I ever saw. Who'd want to kiss _him_?”

“I can name, oh, about 100 girls,” offered Honda. “Maybe 200.”

“Shut up!”

“He's a billionaire.”

“Shut the _hell_ up.”

* * *

It was supposed to be a dare. In, out, done. Just a kiss. That's all.

Kaiba was his rival, so there was that.

So what? It shouldn't mean anything. It should just annoy him. No, it should just piss him off, make him as angry as hell, that Atem would be OK with doing that just to prove that he was willing to rise to a challenge.

OK with what?

OK with invading Kaiba's privacy without his consent, that's what. After all, a kiss is a personal thing and he'd done this in front of three friends without asking.

But fulfilling the conditions of a dare requires witnesses, right? Or it wouldn't count. Kaiba understands that.

It wasn't as though he'd never …

Wait.

He couldn't know that. What if Kaiba had never been kissed before? Then …

Atem's presumption, stealing a kiss so blatantly, in front of his friends, people that Kaiba barely knew or respected, just to fulfill a dare …

_Oh, shit!_

And then there was the other thing. And the first thing made the other thing so much worse.

The other thing was so unexpected, so strange, so … miraculous … that he barely comprehended what had happened.

When he kissed Kaiba, he felt the strangest thing: a warmth, a compelling need, flowing and growing throughout his body. When Kaiba pushed him away, his only impulse had been to leap back towards Kaiba to reclaim him.

To make him his own.

* * *

Seto strode through the hall, barely able to contain himself. Certainly, he was unable to contain his rage. He wanted to tear something to shreds.

Preferably Atem.

Atem best, but Otogi would do. He was 98% positive that the skinny little gambler was behind this outrage.

His fingers twitched, hungering for a target.

What paltry exchange did Atem consider worth Seto's pride, he wondered? A card, perhaps? Some stupid little dice game?

Who the crap was he supposed to throttle, anyway?

 _Kissing_ him—in front of those three sniggering boys! Jonouchi among them, too, looking completely disgusted, as though Seto were some sort of soil-dwelling invertebrate. Someone like him, judging someone like Kaiba! As _if!_

And that Honda, trying to look sympathetic? Kaiba Seto doesn't need his pity!

He could hardly breathe because he was practically choking.

Then, he turned a corner and _wham!_

“What do you think you're doing! Watch where the fuck you're going!”

Shit. Ushio.

Normally Seto would have evaded that goon, slipped his grasp and made him look foolish. But this time, he had a ham-sized fist wrapped around Seto's neck. Seto could already feel five small bruises forming beneath his fingertips.

“That's it! I don't care _who_ you are!”

Seto had one single thought as the first fist connected:

_This is going to go down as one of the worst days of my life._

* * *

“Kaiba! Are you OK?”

Kaiba put up a hand to shield his eyes and squinted up toward Atem.

“What does it look like?” he asked gruffly. It looked like he had gone through a meat grinder. A black eye, a split lip, dried blood, bruises on his neck and face …

Atem offered his hand. “I'm sorry.”

Seto stiffly got to his feet, ignoring Atem's proffered hand. “Right.”

“No, I mean it.”

“What was the wager?” Seto looked down at his ruined school uniform, now torn, dirty and spotted with blood from his nose and split lip. Nevertheless, he dusted it off and straightened it.

“What are you—”

“Oh, please! It was obvious that was a dare. What did you get out of it?”

“It doesn't matter. A surfboard. It's yours. I'll bring it around—”

“I don't want it. I have one.”

Of course he would have one.

“Let me take you surfing, then. This weekend.”

“And just what makes you think that I would want to go anywhere with you or, even if I did, that would in any way make up for what you did?” Kaiba turned and began walking away down the hallway. He glanced over his shoulder. “You and your friends. Why do you insist on pulling me into your schemes?”

Atem found himself following Kaiba, suddenly aware that he was so much taller. “Kaiba— _don't!_ Don't go. Won't you let me … apologize properly? I really am sorry. What I did was, well, unforgivable.” He stopped, looking at his feet. “Still, I'd like to at least try to make it up to you.”

Kaiba stopped and turned slowly, drawing himself up to his full height and adjusting his torn school uniform. “You're going to make it up … to me? I don't understand. Isn't this exactly what you expected? Did you not expect me to be anything other than angry? Or did you not consider my reaction at all?”

“Well, I …” He thought Kaiba would be mad, but …

He did think Kaiba would be mad …

Right?

Or …

Kaiba stood staring at him for a long moment, then said, “You did have _some_ concept of what you were doing, didn't you?” His stare grew increasingly incredulous, then he turned on his heel with a snort and stalked off, leaving Atem standing uncomprehending in his wake.

 _Why did I accept the dare?_ _Not for the surfboard, obviously. It was because it was a dare, right, or was it … did I want to kiss him and that was a likely excuse?_ Atem lifted his head and stared after the tall, slender man. He'd never truly considered it before, after all, because Kaiba wasn't the sort of person who allowed people to get close to him, but …

Atem knew that he was attractive. No, not attractive. So much more than attractive. Desirable. Fascinating. Enthralling. Unforgettable.

And he had expected him to be angry. He had, that's what he told himself, only … didn't he, in his deepest heart, if he truly admitted the truth, didn't he have to admit …

he had hoped Kaiba would kiss him back?

 

**Chapter notes ...**

Added, next day: I should say a few words about the title & description, shouldn't I? If the words you were thinking of were “I love you,” well, that's what I was hoping. Hope you're not mad at me for pulling that on you! This is what the idea of the story is all about. I was walking along and it occurred to me that there was only a few letters difference in the two sentences, and both would be very compelling to Atem. Atem has a hard time preventing himself from rising to a challenge! (Especially that early, vengeful-spirit Atem ... ahem ...) Anyway, when and if (probably when) I return to this story, we'll see what we can do about that pesky word ...


	2. Repercussions

The next day, Seto walked into school a little worse for wear. The tender flesh around his eye had ripened to a deep purplish-black, and moving was painful. But he'd be damned if he'd let anyone in school know it. He strode smoothly through the halls up to his locker as usual.

He quickly saw that even his locker couldn't escape molestation because it had a paper taped to it covered with large block letters—in red, yet:

**KAIBA SETO FOR PROM QUEEN**

He sighed as he pulled the paper down. It was no more than he expected. At least it wasn't painted directly on his locker door, he thought. Perhaps he should be thankful for that, considering the boors he attended school with. Taking out his books, he turned and walked to his first class, pretending that the cat-calls and whistles were for someone else.

He sat down. First period Latin. Hopefully that subject was sober enough—

“Kaiba?” The words were softly spoken and accompanied by a small hand placed on his own.

His hand involuntarily twitched out from under the offending appendage as his head jerked up from his book to find a girl he barely recognized staring straight into his eyes. “What the—What do you want?” he asked, trying to minimize the rudeness that he felt.

“It's not true. Right? What they're saying isn't true?”

Seto felt his jaw harden. What business was it of hers?

“Is this even your class?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“Well …”

“If this isn't your class, I suggest you get out of here.”

“But is it—?”

“Any of your business? No.”

The girl turned and fairly flew from the room. Seto could swear she was in tears.

_Did I ask her to do that?_

He turned his attention back to the lesson, scowling. He knew it backwards and forwards already. It was elementary.

He could use a much better distraction that this.

Stupid girl. Why did she have to come by here? She didn't even want to make him feel better. She wanted to make herself feel better; reassure herself. She wanted to save her own stupid, useless fantasies. He felt sick. Fantasies about him. Fantasies that would never come true, no matter what he had said to her, no matter how “nice” he'd been. Bad enough these girls entertained fantasies like that without asking his permission; must they rub his nose in the fact that they existed?

His body still ached from the abuse Ushio had dealt it. Add headache and stomachache to that.

This was going to be an even longer day than he'd anticipated.

* * *

Atem sat in Literature class, reading. He finished the passage quickly. It was obvious enough what the point was, after all. Glancing around, it was obvious enough that their teacher was going to allow more time for the others to finish, so he glanced out the window. The PE class was playing soccer today on the field outside. He sighed softly, envying their transitory freedom.

He caught sight of a player with a beautiful physique in the distance. Long lithe legs, broad shoulders and chest, narrow waist and hips, flat stomach, tall … _Come closer, you god, you!_

As if in answer to Atem's silent call, the boy chased an errant kick in his general direction, finally tangling feet with Honda not five meters directly in front of the window.

_Kaiba!_

Atem averted his gaze immediately back to the pages of his book, feeling a flush rush to his cheeks. He should have realized. The only person with such a physique in this school was Kaiba. Honda had a nice enough one, but he wasn't as tall and he was more sturdily athletic.

Tentatively, Atem again raised his eyes to the window. The play had moved to the far goal, with Honda in full dribble and Kaiba in pursuit. Kaiba clearly had physical training, but it was aimed for efficiency, not pure prowess. Honda was focused on his physical training and Atem knew he was hoping to make a career out of it somehow.

After a couple of feints, Kaiba managed to knock the ball away and get it to his teammates. He was now joining them in the effort to score.

Atem frowned slightly. He'd never really considered Kaiba as the sort to enter into a team sport, but of course, this was an assignment.

Someone passed the ball to Kaiba. He fielded it deftly and punched it into the goal with a lightning-fast movement of his other foot. No one saw it. Kaiba's team jumped up and down, forgetting for a moment any personal issues they might have had with him.

Atem sat for a few seconds, reflecting that he'd never considered that Kaiba was now the head of his family's company and that he was a team leader in that sense. He had to find it within himself to work with others, no matter how solitary a person he might be.

“Motou!”

“Mrs Sakimoto? How can I help you?”

“You might start by paying attention in class. How many times did I call on you?”

“Once?”

“Jounouchi?”

“Uh, Atem, that's actually the third time.”

“Oh, pardon me, Mrs Sakimoto.”

“Why don't you tell the class what's going on outside that's so fascinating that you can't pay attention to your work?”

“I'm sorry, Mrs Sakimoto, there's soccer practice going on, and I suddenly realized that I sorely need to practice my own techniques. I apologize to the class for wasting their time.”

“Very well,” Mrs Sakimoto said. “Please read Gloucester from the top of page 150. Anzu, take Lady Anne.”

Atem began reading.

“ _Teach not thy lips such scorn, for they were made_  
 _For kissing, lady, not for such contempt._  
 _If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,_  
 _Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword;_  
 _Which if thou please to hide in this true bosom._  
 _And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,_  
 _I lay it naked to the deadly stroke,_  
 _And humbly beg the death upon my knee …_ ”

As he continued, his heart sank. He could tell himself that he loved Kaiba all he wanted—and he knew he wasn't after Kaiba's fortune, there was that—but however he looked at it, he felt like he was forcing unwanted attention onto Kaiba to fulfill his own selfish desires. _Am I as low as Gloucester?_

_Is there no chance?_

He glanced out the window out of the corner of his eye. The PE class had left the field. Atem wondered vaguely which side had won.

“Mr Motou! I know you're not an actor, but put _some_ feeling into it?”

“Yes, Mrs Sakimoto! … _But shall I live in hope?_ ”

“ _All men, I hope, live so._ ”

* * *

At lunch, Atem kept his eyes on the door, hoping Kaiba would appear. His stomach clenched on his well-practiced apology. He pushed his tray to one side.

“Are you all right?” asked Jounouchi.

“Peachy.”

“Maybe his conscience is bothering him,” said Honda.

“Honda …” growled Jounouchi in a warning tone. “Don't start anything. Atem has his reasons. And, besides, we're Atem's friends.”

“Jounouchi, what if he wants to talk about it? Like you said, we're his friends.”

“I …” Could he? Was it even possible that they could understand that he could have an actual attraction toward Kaiba? Jounouchi felt such prejudice toward the man. Honda seemed sympathetic, but Atem wasn't certain he could understand how Atem could be in love with a male.

A snide laugh was heard rippling through the cafeteria. Otogi.

Atem looked up. He couldn't help it. No Kaiba, but Otogi? Could lunch get more unpleasant?

Apparently it could. “Not sitting with your new boyfriend, Atem?” Otogi said in a loud and distinctly derisive voice. “I expected to see you sitting together. But then, again, he doesn't look so good today. Aren't you treating him well—or maybe—” Otogi paused to gasp slightly in feigned mortification, “—he's not into those sorts of perverted sex games, is he?”

Atem gritted his teeth and closed his eyes as he listened to the wave of gossipy speculation flow throughout the cafeteria. There was nothing he could say that could possibly make this situation better. Simply acknowledging this idiot made things worse. Thank god Kaiba wasn't here to hear that load of BS!

The murmur of the cafeteria changing from the sound of general gossip to random conversations was suddenly interrupted by a smattering of nervous laughter mixed with renewed gossip. Atem's eyes sprang open.

_Kaiba!_

A relative silence fell over the room. If Kaiba noticed, he made no sign of it as he walked over to the line and selected a beverage. After paying, he began to walk out.

Otogi, who had settled in with his friends, stood up and stepped directly into Kaiba's path.

“You're impeding my progress,” said Kaiba. “Get out of my way.”

“I just wanted to ask why you aren't with your boyfriend.”

Kaiba said nothing, but paled visibly, his face becoming rigidly tense. Unable to move around him because of the narrow space between tables, he shouldered Otogi to one side and walked out.

 _Well_ , Atem thought, _so much for talking to Kaiba at lunch_.

When he really gave it some thought, it wasn't that good an idea to begin with because Kaiba usually just got something to drink and then disappeared. He was probably in the robotics lab or in a classroom somewhere working on something for KaibaCorp.

Should he try tracking him down and cornering him? There was something about it that really bothered him. Perhaps it was that doing something like that was what got him into trouble in the first place. He'd really rather avoid starting yet another embarrassing argument in school.

He thought a little bit about approaching Kaiba after school. He was picked up by that big black limo every day, so it should be easy to find him, but Otogi had made approaching Kaiba in or around school next to impossible. He wanted to spare Kaiba as much further embarrassment as he possibly could.

No matter what, he couldn't stop now. He'd have to figure something out. No matter how one-sided it had been, the kiss had felt amazing. He wanted more.

He needed it.

* * *

The afternoon brought the classes that Atem and Kaiba shared, history and calculus. Kaiba, of course, excelled in all his classes, but Atem rivaled him in history. This might have been a result of the fact that Kaiba had an appalling lack of interest in the subject.

As Atem sat next to Jounouchi waiting for Kaiba to take his seat next to him on the other side, he reflected that it must have been in history class that he developed this attraction for Kaiba. He'd seen Kaiba's intellect well enough during calculus class, of course, but he hardly said a word. Occasionally, the teacher would call him to the board to work a problem, which he would do with breathtaking efficiency, but, other than to explain his steps, he barely spoke.

In history class, the students were encouraged to discuss the issues of various historical periods. This gave Atem the chance to challenge Kaiba's steadfast refusal to see value in studying the past. “You look at your sales data, don't you?” he'd said.

“Yes, but—”

“That's historical data, right? The sales data for the previous year is historical by definition.”

“Yes, I suppose so, but that's business.”

“There is no difference. Business history is still history. Political history, religious history, human history … there's something to be learned from all of it.”

“I'm concentrating on the future.”

“Kaiba,” he'd said, “how can you properly plan for the future if you aren't aware of the mistakes and successes of the past? I know that you're intelligent enough to recognize that fact, no matter what you say about it. Even if you are pioneering a new field, you can find some analogous situations if you look hard enough.”

Atem knew that he'd gotten through to Kaiba even though he hadn't quite admitted it.

“Think he'll show?”

“Hm?” Atem vaguely registered the fact that Jounouchi had spoken. He'd been staring at the empty chair that Kaiba usually occupied.

“Kaiba,” Jounouchi said. “Think he'll show?”

Before Atem could answer, Kaiba walked in and sat down. Atem attempted not to look at him. As much as he wanted to speak with him, it was hard not to.

Jounouchi elbowed Atem not too subtly in the arm and said, “Well, didn't you want to talk to him?”

Atem tensed, sensing Kaiba stiffening noticeably on his other side. “Uh, I don't think—” he began, but Mr Yakimura walked in, cutting him short and putting an end to the buzz that had started up in the classroom upon Kaiba's entrance.

“Today we're continuing our discussion of the Industrial Revolution. We'll be discussing the inventions that propelled the era, the minds behind those inventions, and the industrialists who used them to build their fortunes. Would anyone like to give an opinion as to the most influential invention of the late eighteenth century? Mr Motou?”

“Uh … the AC electrical power generator?”

He felt blue eyes glance toward him briefly as Mr Yakimura went on. “Very interesting answer, Mr Motou. Let's hear from the rest of you. Who agrees or disagrees and why?”

Atem discretely glanced to the side as another student stated her opinion, but Kaiba was staring ahead.

* * *

Seto rolled over.

He didn't sleep that much under normal circumstances, but this was ridiculous. Usually he could push any pressing matters from his mind and get his body to relax so that he could drop off almost instantly.

Maybe because he was usually spent.

The last couple of days, though, there seemed to be so much tension in his body that no matter what he did, he couldn't get his body and mind to relax enough to sleep.

He couldn't understand it. It was frustrating. Was it that stupid Atem? Seto was positive that he should have recovered from that incident by now.

But whatever the cause, he was left to deal with the annoying effects. It was going to have an effect on his business work, which was problematic, and it was going to even have an effect on his school work, which was almost laughable … and embarrassing.

He got up and considered the options.

He could get drunk. No, killing off brain cells to get a little sleep and wake up all the worse for it was not the way to become rested.

He could take something. But he really didn't relish the idea of taking questionable chemical concoctions, plus it would be a short-term remedy at best, and the side effects ranged from embarrassing to dangerous.

He could tire himself physically until he dropped from sheer exhaustion.

Actually, that didn't sound too bad.

Seto rose and quietly slipped down to the gym.

* * *

The next day, Seto found himself in chemistry class yawning.

_Yes, I really want to handle sulfuric acid on two hours rest. That's safe …_

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Bakura, would you handle the titration today?”

“Kaiba? Are you all right? You never let me—”

“Just—I didn't get much sleep last night, all right? Just be careful.”

“All right, Kaiba.”

Bakura clammed right up, knowing from experience that if Kaiba was short on sleep—by his standards especially—his temper was even shorter. Being Kaiba's lab partner was tricky. He had the benefit of Kaiba's genius—an almost guaranteed top grade—but he had to put up with Kaiba's demands for perfection and various personality quirks—flaws, some would say.

Bakura completed the motions of the lab with extreme care, then looked over at Kaiba. To his astonishment, rather than watching him like a hawk and taking notes, he had his head down on the lab bench, out like a light.

“Kaiba?”

“Mmmph?”

“Kaiba?”

“Amm, lmme sleep.”

“Kaiba, chemistry lab is almost over.”

“Chem—” Kaiba's head snapped up. “What? I never—” _sleep in school?_

Apparently there's a first time for everything.

“Kaiba,” Bakura said timidly, “did you say _Atem_?”

“Atem? Why would I say that?”

“I have no idea. I just wondered whether he was in your dream because it sort of sounded like you said his name.”

Narrowed blue eyes, now fully awake, trained on Bakura like a laser targeting system.

“I guess that wasn't what I heard.”

“No, it wasn't.”

* * *

By that evening, Seto was thoroughly exhausted and wanted nothing more that to go through everything he needed to complete for KaibaCorp and then roll into bed. But even with Mokuba's help, he estimated that it was going to take at least four hours. He set Mokuba to work on a pile of email while he went through some decisions, contracts, and planning documents.

The two of them sat at the roomy table in Seto's home office. Seto had dinner and a pitcher of lemonade brought in, but it didn't lighten his mood much.

“You seem tense,” Mokuba commented from behind his laptop. “Usually you don't ask for my help with KaibaCorp work.”

“So?”

“So, is something going on?”

“I'm tired, and I want to finish this as quickly as I can. I trust you to handle things; I just don't think you need to be weighed down by all this …”

“… boring stuff?” Mokuba suggested.

“That's a good way of putting it.”

“So you're just tired?”

“Yes.”

“And it doesn't have anything to do with what's on this website?”

“What website?” Seto asked, stepping around the table to look over Mokuba's shoulder.

“This,” Mokuba said, pointing at the screen. “Looks like it was put up today.”

“What the—” Seto began, realizing that his day had just gotten longer.

There, on the screen before him, was a photo of Atem kissing him.

* * *

**Chapter notes ...**

This was originally posted with a warning that this story might come along more slowly than my usual pace (a chapter a week). This still applies after chapter 5.

One note ...

_Please read Gloucester_ : Thank you, William Shakespeare! :) That's _Richard III_ , guys, if you're interested. ;) Call it recommended reading.

_the side effects ranged from embarrassing to dangerous_ : side effects such as waking up face-down in a plate of spaghetti or finding that you've driven (or crashed) without knowing it. Sleep aids can have some weird side effects.


	3. Image

“What the—” Seto began, realizing that his day had just gotten longer.

There, on the screen before him, was a photo of Atem kissing him.

“Someone must have had a camera turned on,” Seto murmured, thinking of all the laptops in the robotics room. _Could Atem have chosen a worse location for pulling that stunt? Probably not._

Mokuba looked over his shoulder, trying to figure out what his brother was talking about. “Nii-sama?” he said. “Uh, Nii-sama, when were you going to tell me about this? I mean, you told me you got into a scrape with that—”

“Ushio.”

“Yeah, him, but you didn't say anything about kissing someone.”

Seto waved at the screen tiredly. “Yeah, well, it isn't what it looks like. For one thing, I wasn't kissing _him_ , he was kissing _me_ , and it was a stupid prank. A dare.”

“So … you wish he was serious about it?”

“What? _No!_ I wish he hadn't done such a stupid thing at _all_!” He almost asked Mokuba what he was thinking, but decided he really didn't want to know. There was no way he wanted to get into that. Besides, he had much more important things to do.

Like get that page down.

Of course, it was already too late, but the gesture was important. First, he created a bot to search and destroy copies of the picture. At least the thing should be erased from the internet almost as quickly as it spread. Then, to get a line on the perpetrator and pull down the original site …

Of course, he had a fair idea of who was responsible already. It wasn't like he was pretending innocence.

Once that little emergency was taken care of, Seto looked up and it was already 11 pm. And he'd hoped to go to bed early tonight. It was still earlier than he often got to bed, but …

“Seto?”

“Hn? Oh, yes, Mokuba?”

“It would have been OK with me if you had been kissing him, you know.”

Seto shook his head. “What? What are you talking about?”

“Well … you just haven't been dating anyone, and you always say that girls are so annoying—”

“They _are_ annoying! But that doesn't mean …” _he wasn't interested in dating girls?_ Seto frowned. He hadn't really thought about dating anyone. It was mostly because he'd had to take the reigns of KaibaCorp so early and that took all his attention, but …

but what?

But of course he would date a girl, or …?

He frowned. He didn't have time for that shit now.

“Mokuba, I don't need to date anyone right now. Look at today. I just don't have time to think about that kind of thing.”

“But you need to at least think about it. I know you have obligations and stuff, but you're still … you know.”

“All I know is that I'm tired, and it's been a really, really long week.”

And there was still one day to go.

* * *

The next day, Seto walked into school like nothing happened. It was really hard to maintain the front today. For once he found himself thinking _Thank God it's Friday!_ along with all the rest of the herd. He resisted the urge to lean against his locker when he arrived at that temporary refuge. He tried not to wonder how many of his fellow inmates had seen the offending webpage.

“Kaiba? Hey, Kaiba, at least let me help get you get rid—”

Seto sighed heavily and turned on Atem. “Didn't you check this morning? It's already down,” he snapped, more harshly than he'd intended. “Besides,” he added, a little more calmly, “haven't you done enough already?”

“I'm trying to make up for that,” Atem said. “I've been trying to apologize all week.”

“You did that already … or don't you remember?”

“Yes, but …” Atem glanced at the floor, then made himself look back into Seto's eyes steadfastly. “I really need to make it up to you.”

“Well, I guess that's too bad for you, then,” Seto said. He turned toward Latin class, but for some reason, he didn't feel better. He'd expected to feel at least a little better, but he didn't.

* * *

At lunch, Seto went to the cafeteria as usual. He would have avoided it, but deviating from routine would have been an admission of defeat. He was tired. It was frustrating to discover that maintaining his equanimity took so much effort that he had to stop by the restroom just to gather himself ahead of time. He wasn't sure what he expected upon his entry: a wave of chatter and gossip, or a sudden silence. He wasn't even sure what he would prefer. He was sure that there would be some sort of reaction.

He stepped into the cafeteria with what he hoped was supreme confidence to a smattering of titters followed by whispered conversations. Yeah, it could be better … still, he supposed it could be worse. He felt the eyes of Otogi on his back. _Yes, Otogi instigated this whole thing._

His mind worked as he studiously ignored all of his surroundings except for the things he came for. Otogi's father had gaming interests; could this all be some sort of devious plan to divert attention from KaibaCorp's Christmas offerings? _Does that oaf seriously believe that distracting people with personal shit is going to degrade KaibaCorp sales in favor of his father's offerings?_

Seto had to smother a laugh as he walked to the cashier. It came out as a brief, choking cough. He expects me to retaliate. _Heh, he's beneath my notice. Just a fly … to be swatted like a fly._

_And Atem? He wanted to “help.”_ Seto had shooed him away like a fly, too, but, like a fly, he didn't seem like he was going away anytime soon. Seto could feel his eyes following him as well. … Along with just about everyone else's …

_Flies._

He strode from the cafeteria reminding himself of that. Thank goodness for the robotics lab.

And weekends.

* * *

With everything that he had to do, Kaiba Seto was rarely the first person to school in the morning. Sometimes that wasn't such a good thing. He walked in the next Monday, his mood a bit higher having had the weekend to fade his bruises, but unfortunately some of them were the kind that ripened to a deep shade of plum before they started to fade.

His black eye, for example.

But his spirits were immediately dashed because the entire hallway was papered with grainy photocopies of that same surveillance picture from the computer lab:

Hundreds of images of Atem planting one on his unsuspecting mug.

As much as Seto would have liked to say that he simply walked to his locker without missing a beat, that was not the case. He stood for at least two seconds, absorbing the ramifications, before hardening his expressionless mask and striding purposefully to his locker.

_Why was I not prepared for this? It was the obvious next move._

He ruthlessly squelched his strong urge to rip photocopies from the walls: There were far too many, and nearly the entire student body had already seen them anyway.

And what good would it do? A few of them had seen the website, and for the rest of them this only confirmed the rumors they were already hearing. The last thing he needed was the student body getting the idea that he cared; that this whole campaign was getting under his skin.

The bad news, Seto decided, arriving at his locker and swiftly twirling the combination lock dial, was that the picture made it look like the kiss was consensual. He did remove the copy from his locker, dropping it casually to the floor.

Seto liked to believe that he could just ignore the opinions of others. He didn't care what they thought of him. But today, he found it very difficult to ignore the whispering hum of the herd staring at him. At least none of them dared accost him at his locker today.

He thought.

Turning around with books in hand, he saw two crimson eyes staring earnestly up at him. This was the last person he wanted to see today. “Kaiba,” Atem began.

“I'm not in the mood,” Seto stated, slamming the door of his locker closed. “Don't you have a class to go to?”

“Wait,” Atem said in a loud whisper, trotting after him as he strode toward Latin class. “There's something … I need to … talk to you about!” Finally catching up, Atem gripped Seto's wrist.

Kaiba practically snarled, whirling on his pursuer and jerking his arm away instinctively. “What is it now?” he hissed in a barely-restrained whisper.

“Won't you let me help you with—” He was interrupted by Kaiba's bitter laugh.

“Well, isn't that nice? You're the cause of all this, and now you're going to somehow magically repair my reputation? Thank you, but I can take care of myself.” He glanced around. “Look, every time you're seen near me, you only make things worse. You can help me by keeping your distance.”

“But, Kaiba, I …”

But Seto was already striding rapidly away down the corridor to Latin class.

* * *

Atem wasted no time recruiting his friends to help him remove the hundreds of home-made posters hanging around the school. With a little divide-and-conquer, it took a lot less time than he'd feared.

Jounouchi met him at American Joe's after school. “You owe me a milkshake,” he said. “You know I did this for you, don't you? I'd never give up a lunch period for that prima donna. Hell, I wouldn't lift a finger for him.”

“Yeah, you don't have to remind me. But you're not the only one I owe.” The two waited a few minutes for Honda, then Atem bought them all milkshakes.

“Isn't Anzu coming?” asked Honda.

“Nah, she said she's watching her weight. Guys have to be able to lift dancers, you know.”

Jounouchi chuckled at that and began to open his mouth, but Anzu appeared as if by magic. “Got anything to say about that?” she asked.

“No, ma'am. You're a very, um, graceful dancer.”

“As you'd do well to remember.” She smiled at Atem. “You think I'd miss meeting up with you guys just because I don't suck up junk food?”

“To the point, though,” Atem said, “who do you think is doing all this? And why would they have it in for S-Kaiba?”

“A lot of guys have it in for Kaiba,” Jounouchi grumbled. “Just because of his attitude.”

Atem frowned, then cocked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Think about it!” Anzu said, grabbing a seat. “Even I agree he has a bad attitude, and I'm a girl. Yeah, I know a lot of the girls are impressed with him, but he just … the way he walks around, all Mr Superior? He thinks he's better than everybody else. It's annoying.”

“So someone out there decided to cut him down to size,” added Jounouchi. “It's just human nature.”

“In other words, Kaiba can back up his point of view. He _is_ the best student—and one of the best athletes—in school—and he runs a company.” Atem frowned again. “I keep forgetting that. How does he do it?”

“I'm sure he has _some_ help,” Anzu suggested, waving a dismissive hand. “After all, he has enough money to hire someone—lots of people—to help him.”

“Another reason why he walks around acting like he's better than everyone else,” Jounouchi offered resentfully.

“Why am I even talking to you guys?” Atem grumbled. “It's not like you want to help me.”

“Help you do what?” asked Jounouchi. “We helped you with the posters. The way I see it, it hurts _you_. Why the crap would you do that kind of thing? Taking that dare. It makes you look like you have the hots for him. _Eech!_ ”

Atem laughed. “Really not caring about my reputation,” he said. _Obviously Kaiba cares, though_ , he thought. _Maybe I_ should _leave him alone?_

Atem looked up to find Honda looking at him as though he really wanted to say something, but he didn't.

“I think this is all aimed at Kaiba,” Anzu said thoughtfully.

“Huh?” Jounouchi said. “Wait a minute, now, Atem's been hurt by this campaign just as much—”

“Just hear me out,” she continued. “It all started with the dare, and the stuff is all really aimed at Kaiba, right? _Kaiba_ for prom queen? Kaibaslover dot net? Come on!”

“You're right!” Atem said, and then palmed his forehead. “Of course! It's so stupidly obvious … Otogi! For him the whole thing was win-win, don't you see? If I said no, he gets to kick me around, say I backed down; I say yes, he gets to kick Kaiba around. And-and isn't his father in the same business as Kaiba? Oh, geez … how do I fix this?”

Anzu reached out and put a hand on his arm. “Atem,” she said, and waited for him to look at her before going on, “some things you can't fix. It's best to just wait for some things to just blow over. Kaiba's really smart, right? And he hasn't done anything—other than making them take the website down, right?—so maybe you should just, you know, wait.”

Atem hated to admit that Anzu might be right—and her hand on his arm, her big, earnest blue eyes looking at him with such loving concern, made him uncomfortable. There were other serious blue eyes … He sighed and clutched his milkshake tightly. “I guess you're right,” he said.

* * *

A few more days and things really did seem to feel like they were beginning to blow over, but Atem hated giving Kaiba room. He wanted a real conversation. So he decided he'd given it enough time, but he didn't have the right kind of opportunity to talk to Kaiba at school, and he didn't want to risk starting things up again. All the same, he wasn't sure that he'd have any chance to talk to Kaiba at all _here_. Still, he had to try.

He pulled his hoodie tighter around his shoulders, tugged the hood further over his forehead, and speeded his steps as he hurried down the sidewalk.

Atem didn't like this neighborhood. It was the wealthy part of town, and although the surroundings were lushly green, they also seemed ridiculously tamed and manicured. He was glad that there were still hedges to shelter him from the prying eyes he imagined were staring at him from all of the large, gleaming picture windows of those huge mansions overshadowing him.

At this point, he didn't want to have to stand waiting for Kaiba out in the open where people could see him. It wasn't as though he expected people from his school to happen by, but he'd caused Kaiba enough embarrassment by now and if he could spare him an additional blow to his pride, he'd gladly do it.

As soon as he got to the address, he slipped behind a tree near the gate. He decided he'd try to sneak in when Kaiba arrived. He'd skipped out early and splurged on a cab specifically for this. Kaiba had Robotics Club, so who knew when he'd get back?

“Hey, can I help you?” A boy with sparkling violet-gray eyes and a mane of shiny black hair down his back stood before Atem. “I'm Kaiba Mokuba.”

Kaiba's brother?

“I'm Motou Atem. Uh, I'm kind of waiting for your brother.”

“Oh?”

“It's a long story.”

“You're not planning on beating him up, are you?” Mokuba asked, raising a doubting eyebrow.

“No …”

“Then come in and tell me about it.”

Atem followed Mokuba in through the alternate door through which he'd mysteriously appeared. Eventually he was led into a sumptuous living room done up almost completely in white with light blue accents.

“The white was our father's idea,” Mokuba commented. “He's dead.”

The way Mokuba stated that last fact indicated that he wasn't particularly broken up about it.

_Huh._

“You were saying? About wanting to talk to my brother? Can't you talk to him at school?”

“Well, that's just the thing,” said Atem, feeling heat creep into his cheeks, “I did something the other day that I need to apologize to him for (again) and if I approach him at school, things will just get more difficult for the both of us.”

“You're the one!” yelled Mokuba, pointing at Atem so forcibly that Atem was sure he'd be poked in the chest. “I should have known right away!” He pushed the hood off of Atem's head. “You kissed Nii-sama on a dare!”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“You _guess?_ Is that something you can forget?”

“Not exactly. It's something I regret. It's not like I had his permission, and … well, apparently I took him off his guard.”

“Yeah, he kind of got beat up. So you're here to apologize?”

“Yes, I'm going to try.”

“Ha ha, good luck with that.”

“So he's pretty mad?”

“Are you kidding? It's all over school. I should be really mad at you myself.”

“Why's that?”

“Because I hate seeing him upset.”

“But you're not mad?”

“I don't know. We'll see.”

Atem looked at him. _Funny kid_.

Just then, they heard the sound of a door opening in another room. “Mokuba?”

“I'm in the living room, Nii-sama. How was your day?”

“I'm exhausted. I just want to—what the hell?” Kaiba said, walking in. “You let _him_ in?”

“I didn't know who he was until afterward. And, besides, he says he wants to apologize.”

“Him? He wants to apologize?” Kaiba shifted his attention to Atem and suddenly the blue of his gaze, which had been warm tropical lagoons for Mokuba, froze over into glacial ice. “He's already apologized, Mokuba. He knew exactly what he was doing. Why should I even listen to you apologize again, Atem, let alone grant you forgiveness?”

“Aw, c'mon, Nii-sama, at least listen to what he has to say!”

Kaiba turned back to his brother, thawing visibly. “Very well, since you asked. But you're not listening in, Mokuba. It's between the two of us.”

“Aw, Nii-sama!”

“If you want juicy details, go to the internet and dig them up—about _someone else_ —and don't go spreading gossip about _me_!”

“You're no fun.”

Seto turned abruptly toward Atem. “Come with me.”

Without so much as looking to see whether Atem was following, Kaiba turned and walked out of the room, down a hallway and into what looked like a little sitting room. “What is this?” asked Atem, confused.

“A room we seldom use off of one of the guest suites. I just want some privacy. It's bad enough that I have to go over this with you at all. The only reason I'm talking to you at all is because of Mokuba.”

Atem sighed. “Fine. Whatever the reason, please just listen. I'm really sorry that I accepted that dare. I should never have taken advantage of you like that, forcing myself on you—”

“You've—”

“I'm not finished.”

“You've already said that. That's all I want to hear,” Kaiba said icily.

“You promised Mokuba you'd listen.”

Kaiba sighed heavily and said, “Fine. Speak your piece.”

“All right. What I need to tell you is that … Shit. Why is this so hard?”

“What? I wish you'd get this over with. This whole thing has been a nightmare for me.”

Atem closed his eyes. “The thing is, when I kissed you, I realized I'd always wanted to do that. Ever since I did it, I can't think of anything else but doing it again.”

“You … You're crazy! Why would you want to?”

“ _Why?!_ You didn't feel anything then? When I kissed you?”

“What are you … No, don't tell me.”

“Kaiba.” This wasn't going at all the way Atem wanted. Kaiba wasn't listening to his point of view at all. Atem thought back. Kaiba hadn't really had a chance to react when it happened. Atem was dying to try it again. Then he would have a better idea of how Kaiba felt about it.

_Yeah, that would work well._

As if he caught the thought, Kaiba said, “Don't even think about it,” in tones that could liquify nitrogen.

“Of course not,” he lied. “But isn't there any way that I can make it up to you?”

“What, and confirm the rumors circulating around school? I think not.”

“Since when do you care about rumors?”

Atem didn't think Kaiba's gaze could get any colder, but to his surprise, its temperature seemed to plummet at least one hundred degrees. “I don't.”

“Then tell me how I can make it up to you.”

“I'll grant that you're persistent.”

“I'm almost as stubborn as you. Ask Jounouchi.”

Kaiba's expression turned unreadable and he said, “I'm positive that this is a mistake, but I can't have you trailing after me for the rest of the year.”

Atem looked at him eagerly. What could he have in mind? Any number of possibilities floated through his mind, each bringing him in more intimate proximity with Kaiba.

“Something has come up, and I usually assign this task to a junior executive—someone eager to please and afraid of failing, someone who can't imagine saying _no_. What's happening is we're having a product announcement at KaibaCorp this weekend. All the partners will be there. There will be a meet-and-greet, press, the usual. Your assignment will be to keep Pegasus J Crawford happy. Whatever it takes—within reason, of course. That means, find a way to keep it within reason. Do you think you can handle it?”

“All right, if that's what you want.”

The disappointment Atem felt must have filtered to his face because Kaiba said, “Don't you think you can handle it? I thought you were always ready for a challenge.”

“I am. I said I'd do it, didn't I?”

“Oh, I see, you envisioned cuddling up with me all weekend. Well, it's not going to happen.”

“Not at all,” Atem lied. “I'll see you Saturday.”

“And then we're square. No more apologies, no more help.”

**Chapter notes ...**

_Kaibaslover dot net_ : A fictional website made up for this story. As of this writing, it _does not exist_ (I checked). So don't come after me, guys!


	4. Suggestion

Atem stopped in front of the door of the suite and hesitated.

_Why is this so difficult? After all, he's no more famous than Kaiba._

_But I go to school with Kaiba._

He knocked.

“Come in! Come in! It's unlocked!” The voice was the familiar, sing-song lilt that Atem knew from I2 commercials.

He walked in and bowed. “I'm Motou Atem. I'm representing KaibaCorp and will be seeing to your needs while you're here.”

“No need to be so formal, Atem! Just call me Pegasus! Let me look at you!” Pegasus stepped forward and actually took hold of Atem's shoulder, turning him around physically, his long, straight, platinum hair swaying as he moved. His cologne invaded the space around the two of them like a lilac fog. “I can tell already we're going to get along famously! You're so much better than the aides Kaiba-boy usually sends around!” he said.

Atem wasn't sure how to take this and said nothing. Could this man utter a sentence without placing an exclamation point at the end of it? Enthusiasm is nice and all, but there are limits.

“The first thing you can do for me is get me a nice, tall café latte. Oh, and by the way, take this and give it to Kaiba, will you?” Pegasus produced a tiny electronic item from his pocket. It looked like it had been crushed.

“What's that?”

“Just the bug that was hidden in this room. And you can leave your nameplate with Kaiba, too. I know your name and I can recognize _you_ anywhere.”

“Why?”

“Isn't it obvious?” he said, gesturing toward Atem's multi-colored hair and leaning in toward the nameplate. “Kaiba-boy,” he said, addressing the nameplate, “do me a favor and don't embarrass either of us with any more shenanigans like this? It won't do you any good.” He straightened and looked at Atem. “And tell them to put plenty of latte in that latte, or you're taking it back! Out with you, now.”

Atem found himself standing on the other side of the closed door, his head spinning.

_So that's Pegasus J Crawford?_

He plodded toward the event center.

_I hope that Kaiba's out somewhere organizing things._

No such luck. Kaiba was standing at the main desk talking with a group of what looked like security men. As Atem approached, his head swiveled around.

“Put them in the bin there,” he said.

Atem placed the bug and his nameplate in the bin.

“What are you waiting for? Don't you have a latte to pick up?” asked Kaiba.

Atem hustled off as fast as he could without saying a word. It wasn't his fault that Pegasus spotted the bugs, after all.

_And what was with that, anyway?_

His mind was still gnawing on that when he returned to Pegasus' room with the latte.

“Not bad! I think you might work out after all,” said Pegasus, leaning back on a couch. He motioned around the suite. “Go ahead and make yourself at home. Sit down. I'm really not the monster Kaiba-boy makes me out to be!”

Atem sat in one of the luxurious chairs, but felt on guard. There was something about Pegasus that naturally set him on edge.

“You are _so_ not the ladder-climbing wonk that he usually sends out. I'm dying to know your story!”

“That's between me and Kaiba.”

“All right, fine, be that way. Our first event of this shindig is in about twenty minutes anyway.”

“Twenty—!” _So soon?_

* * *

Atem stood in the wings as the press conference went on. It was a large announcement of new products, primarily KaibaCorp's new line, out just in time for the big Christmas/New Year's rush, with all of his partners, especially I2. It was incredibly weird seeing Kaiba in a role so very different from the one he played at school. Everyone knew that he was now the president and CEO of KaibaCorp, of course, but it was hard to visualize. It was far easier to see him as the best student, most-likely-to-succeed guy, not the already-successful captain of industry.

Just seeing him in the spotlights out of his school uniform and in that amazing suit …

_Yeah, weird. Seriously weird._

_No wonder Kaiba didn't want that kiss. Even if he's gay, I'm just a high school dude, while he's … all this._

Atem found himself staring at his shoes and had to force his gaze back onto the event.

Wait, was that Pegasus looking his way? Whatever for?

But Pegasus was heading out onto the stage now, saying, “Thank you, Mr Kaiba! Thank you, members of the press! Please allow me to tell you all about the great things that Industrial Illusions has been working on!”

* * *

Atem trailed after Pegasus following the press conference, his heart filled with trepidation.

“Don't you think that went well, Atem?” Pegasus effused, fairly floating down the hallway. “I think that the press will say wonderful things about both Industrial Illusions' and KaibaCorp's products, don't you?”

“They did seem impressed,” allowed Atem.

“For lunch, why don't you go out to the Homard Rouge and bring me …” Pegasus launched into a long and detailed order that sent Atem scrambling for a notepad to get it all down.

“Wait, wait … and sweet corn, you say?”

“Absolutely _not_ mushy! And make sure that the order is hot and well-wrapped. I can't abide cold take-out.”

Atem glanced at the microwave in the kitchenette, but said nothing. He was positive that Pegasus would have something bad to say about microwaved food.

After practically overseeing the kitchen staff at the restaurant personally, Atem was delivering it to Pegasus, extremely glad that the restaurant was literally steps away from the hotel.

“Here, Atem, have some of this,” said Pegasus. “I ordered enough for three, and I want to talk to you anyway.”

“But this is so expensive!” Atem said, looking over the five-star spread.

“Of course it is! As long as my company is paying for it, I might as well get the best! Besides, have you ever eaten lobster flown in live from Maine?”

“Well, no …”

“Dig in then, before it gets cold! It's an American delicacy!”

“I don't understand. The Homard Rouge isn't a French restaurant?”

“French Canadian. Do the French even like sweet corn?”

The two ate and discussed cuisine for the next little while. Then Pegasus leaned back examining his glass of wine and said, “So exactly how did you talk Kaiba-boy into—for lack of a better word— _letting_ you run errands for me?”

“It's really none of your business, but—to make a long story short—I insulted him and I'm doing this by way of apology.”

“You insulted him, eh?” Pegasus raised a platinum eyebrow and looked Atem up and down. “I can imagine. And you hoped this assignment would bring you in close proximity to Kaiba-boy, didn't you?”

“I—why would I think—want that?”

Pegasus chuckled. “It's obvious, Atem-boy! You're smitten!”

Atem opened his mouth, but Pegasus raised his hand. “Don't even try to deny it! The way you looked at him earlier, it was obvious! You've never really seen him up close as Mr KaibaCorp before, have you? Impressive, isn't he? If he weren't so damn young, I'd go for him myself!”

“But he—” Atem began, simultaneously suppressing a gag at the thought.

“You mean the way he watches me like a hawk?” Pegasus waved his hand at the thought. “A stupid misunderstanding. You know how Kaiba-boy is! He thinks I can't be trusted now just because we didn't see eye to eye on a tiny little issue that arose right after his adoptive father died.”

“I don't suppose you'd care to explain?”

Pegasus shrugged. “You can look it up, so why not? He and Mokuba were left without parents and they were both underage, so I offered to take them both under my wing. After all, if they weren't up to the task of leading KaibaCorp, it would be bad for my business.”

“You were going to adopt them?!”

“Why not?! It was a terrific business decision, and Kaiba-boy is brilliant! I'm sure we would have learned to get along famously! I see no reason why not!”

“I can certainly see why Kaiba objected.”

“At the time I had no way of knowing that Kaiba-boy had an even better head for business than his father! We had barely signed our first agreement when his father died. What was I to do? A lot of my assets depended on his ability to carry the company. But I must say, the boy came through for me! He hasn't trusted me since, though!”

“So, he …”

“Oh, right! He became emancipated! His own man. He's his brother's guardian, you know.” Pegasus smiled and gave Atem another hard look. “You're pretty impressive yourself, coming after him like this.”

“I don't know what you mean.”

“Please. Don't be coy. Why do you think I don't want Kaiba-boy listening in? I want you to feel comfortable chatting with me!”

_How can I possibly feel comfortable chatting about this with Pegasus?!_

Atem said nothing, so Pegasus started slicing up the dark chocolate torte that he'd ordered. “This is to die for, honestly! If you're suffering heartbreak, it's just the thing! If you're not, it's still wonderful! Have a piece!” He put a slice on Atem's plate and said in quiet, confidential tones, “You know, I think that you might have a much better chance with Kaiba-boy than you think.”

“How would _you_ know?! I've already ruined any chance that—” _Shit!_ He hadn't meant to say anything about that.

Pegasus' smile changed a little. Was that smugness? “Oh, come on, you can tell me. You confessed, didn't you? You told him you liked him, didn't you? Wait, it was worse than that?! Oh, you _did_ something! What did you do? Was it a kiss, or was it—”

“ _It was just a kiss!_ Shit, it was only a kiss, no more than that!” Atem didn't want to hear what more Pegasus might imagine could pass between them and he certainly didn't want to think about it—not in front of Pegasus. He was blushing enough as it was.

“I'm certain it wasn't _just_ a kiss or you wouldn't be playing gofer,” Pegasus said smugly. “That aside, Kaiba-boy didn't flat out refuse to let you pay penance, did he?”

“No …”

“Well, then! But Atem, you don't strike me as the type of guy who's usually dense. For example, the way you're looking at me.”

“What do you mean?”

Pegasus chuckled. “You could throw me further than you trust me! That much is obvious. But this is about Kaiba-boy. You've got tremendous powers of observation and you're letting your feelings for him interfere with that!”

Atem's eyes opened wide. Could Pegasus be right? He thought back, trying to look at recent events dispassionately. It was almost impossible.

“Oh, let me help,” said Pegasus. “You're so wound up right now that you can't think straight! But then you aren't exactly _straight_ , are you?” He chuckled again at his own joke.

Atem groaned. “Not helping,” he growled.

“Then how's this? Between KaibaCorp, looking after Mokuba, and school, Kaiba-boy's under a lot of pressure. He's like a time bomb! Just pull the pin and he'll go off—he won't be able to help himself! And, considering that Kaiba-boy is not exactly an ordinary guy, I'd say he's more nuclear than conventional!” Pegasus' eyes became dreamy. “Ah … If only he weren't so damn young …”

A tide of revulsion rising within, Atem barely restrained himself from slapping the half-smug, half-creepy expression off of Pegasus' face. Atem's emotions were roiling. Despite the disgust, his desire was inflamed by the possibilities that Pegasus suggested. Was it possible? Pegasus made it sound so plausible. Then Pegasus had to go and express his own interest, which appalled him so much that he was disgusted even with himself. Now he had to question whether he was just interested in Kaiba to gratify his own lust.

He didn't want to think so, but the desire was so strong.

“And your advice to me is just—”

“Oh, yes. All you have to do is light the fuse, give him a little push. Just make it private, not public, or he'll blow up the same way—I assume—he did last time! Don't give him a chance to escape and remember, always approach a bomb with utmost care!”

“Where—” Atem stopped himself. He was about to challenge Pegasus, demanding _Where do you get off charging into private matters between two people like this?_ but thought better of it. How would he explain to Kaiba what happened when Pegasus summarily tossed him off his suite balcony? But his face was still burning. Worse, his mind kept chewing over what Pegasus had said. He took a deep breath and tried to gather himself. “What …” he said as slowly and calmly as he could manage, “exactly do you expect to get out of this?”

“Oh, you clever boy, you!” exclaimed Pegasus. “I half expected you to race out of the room and straight to Kaiba!” He raised an eyebrow. “You look like my suggestion has prodded you enough! Very well, I'll be frank. I'm hoping you'll do something about this right away. If you distract Kaiba-boy, our negotiations should go very well! He might even delegate negotiations, which I think would be even more in my favor!”

Damn, another smug grin.

“And if I care about Kaiba, why would I help you?”

“My dear boy, it looks to me like you're having trouble restraining yourself as it is!”

_Damn Pegasus!_ He wanted to go see Kaiba right now and take a fresh look, if only to reassess his own feelings. He wanted to believe that he didn't just want to take advantage of Kaiba, for one thing.

But Atem couldn't easily set aside the picture of unleashing great passion in Kaiba that Pegasus had engendered in his imagination. He couldn't seem to stop thinking about it. _That's just what he wants!_ Atem told himself, but it didn't remove the images from his mind. Still, he protested. “I'm not going to just do what you want!”

“Oh, but that's your job!”

“I'm not going to—”

“You refuse to take a copy of my new proposal to Kaiba-boy? That's such a simple request! I'm going to have to give him a call and—”

“Give me the proposal,” Atem said shortly, holding out his hand.

“You're so helpful! I'll be sure to tell Kaiba-boy how much better you are than the previous aides he's sent around! Although … your attitude seems to have gotten a little grouchier. Are you sure you ate enough for lunch? Maybe you need a nap!” Pegasus' grin took on a devious cast. “Perhaps you should … go to bed …? Just for a little while? You can have a break.”

Gritting his teeth, Atem walked out of the suite with the proposal in hand. Pegasus' advice was for Atem to light a fuse, but he wasn't so sure that it wasn't Pegasus who hadn't lit one. He swore at himself under his breath, trying to calm the heat that was raging throughout his body—especially in certain areas. _Yeah_ , he thought, _Kaiba's the one who's likely to explode_. The worst part was that Pegasus was so smugly transparent about his strategy and yet he still expected it to work.

Atem wasn't so sure it wouldn't … but …

Kaiba was Kaiba. He was always cold, wasn't he?

After what Pegasus said, Atem was full of hope. Pegasus seemed to be counting on Kaiba's capacity for passion … and Atem's inability to resist the urge to tap into it. Certainly, Kaiba could feel emotion—he certainly got angry easily enough. Anger … bomb … yeah, there was plenty of danger to this challenge, too. Still … if there was hope …

… And there were those images again. How was he going to look Kaiba in the eye with those images dancing around in his head?

On the other hand, if he followed Pegasus' advice, wouldn't he be taking advantage of Kaiba, no matter what Kaiba's feelings might be?

As he walked on toward Kaiba's suite, his mind reeled with uncertainty.

 

**Chapter notes ...**

[Removed shameless plea for reviews & complaint about site bug.]

I hate to want to comment about this, but it is sooo nice to be able to put in the superscript (I2).

_Homard Rouge_ : “Red Lobster.” Not the same thing, though! I've seen a restaurant by this name; trust me, it's not part of the chain. ;)


	5. Proposal

Atem knocked on the door of the suite that was serving as HQ for the event.

Pegasus expected him to seduce Kaiba? It sounded wonderful, but somehow terribly wrong. Pegasus had made it sound like Kaiba was practically exploding with pent up desire, but …

The door opened and a conservatively dressed man in sunglasses looked him over.

“Motou Atem.”

Atem heard Kaiba's voice filter from within the suite. “Who is it, Isono?”

“He says his name is Motou.”

“Let him in.”

Atem walked in. Kaiba was seated at a desk that had been moved to a prominent position in the entry room of the suite. He didn't bother looking up from his work. “What is it?”

“Pegasus sent me with a proposal,” Atem said, offering him the bundle of papers.

“Hn.” Kaiba accepted it, his eyes still on the screen, and placed it on the top of a pile of incoming work on the desk.

_So much for Pegasus' big plan_ , Atem thought. There was a guy to be maneuvered out of the room, and even if there wasn't, Kaiba was totally intent on work. If Kaiba had a superpower, it must be his superhuman power of concentration. Atem paused, unable to tear himself away. The sight of Kaiba so focused was somehow entrancing.

Kaiba glanced up, his focus shifting to Atem. “Are you all right?” he asked. “You look ill.”

“No, I'm fine.”

Kaiba frowned a little and pulled the proposal from the pile. “Is it the proposal?” He glanced over the summary page. “Isono, get me Mr Sato.”

“Yes sir,” he said and disappeared out the door.

“What is it? Was there something in Crawford's actions that you want to discuss?”

“I …” He couldn't talk about that. “No, I—” _I'm alone with him!_ Atem realized. _Do I really want to go through with this?_ “He _is_ a very strange man,” he allowed.

“I suppose I should have warned you about that. He didn't tip off any of his plans, did he? No, I don't suppose he would have.”

Atem wished he knew Kaiba well enough to tell him everything, but could only bring himself to say “No.”

“You do look ill,” Kaiba repeated, standing and pressing his palm against Atem's forehead. “You feel warm and you look flushed. Why don't you go home?”

“I'm all right.” He felt an urge to lean forward to press against the touch as his face grew even warmer. Kaiba was so close now. It would be so easy to put Pegasus' suggestion to the test, but something held him back.

He was beginning to feel delirious from fighting the urge to throw his arms around Kaiba.

“No, I don't want Crawford to get whatever you have, anyway,” Kaiba said. Atem was almost certain he heard a muttered “whether he deserves it or not,” under Kaiba's breath. “It's too bad, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“You've actually done better than most people we send in. Go ahead home.” He touched the KC communication pin on lapel. “Isono … Please drive Atem home. The others can handle things until you return.” Releasing the comm-pin, he said, “You can meet Isono in the lobby. I'll take care of Crawford.”

Atem started for the door, then looked back. Kaiba was again sitting behind his computer, once again in deep concentration.

_I did better?_

“Uh, Kaiba?”

“Aren't you out yet?”

“Doesn't Pegasus bring his own help?”

Kaiba waved a hand. “Of course he does. It's a quirk. He demands that I provide an aide as a show of hospitality and, coincidentally, an opportunity to try to dig out some inside information about KaibaCorp. Obviously, you're ideal since you don't know anything and you're observant enough to be aware of his games.”

Suddenly it hit Atem. Crawford intended to manipulate him into distracting Kaiba; he'd even admitted it. “Shit,” he said, sitting down on a sofa near the door.

Kaiba looked up. “You're not going to vomit, are you? Because there's a restroom right next to the exit.”

“No, nothing like that, but maybe you should look over that proposal very carefully.”

Kaiba picked up the phone, punched in a number, and softly murmured instructions into it. Then he turned back to Atem. “Now, what makes you say that? We always look over his contracts very carefully, but I'll take a careful look at it myself.”

Atem hesitated. He didn't really want to say that Pegasus had figured out how he felt about Kaiba so easily, or what he wanted him to do.

“Come on,” said Kaiba with irritation. “Nothing is beyond that snake, and you shouldn't feel any obligation to protect his modesty—he doesn't have any as it is.”

“Uh, he sort of …” Atem sighed and gathered his courage. “I might as well admit it,” he blurted, “he caught onto the fact that I'm attracted to you and pushed me to distract you.”

“Oh, please!” retorted Kaiba. “As if that were possible!”

“I know!” Atem replied, relieved. He got up and approached the desk again. “I feel a lot better letting you know about it. It was really stupid. I told him it was one-sided, but he didn't think that mattered. Anyway, thanks for letting me get that off my chest. I'll let you get back to work now. I know you're busy.”

Atem started to turn, but Kaiba said, “Wait … just a second.”

Surprised, Atem turned and paused. What could Kaiba want?

Kaiba looked oddly indecisive, then asked, “And why did Crawford think that it didn't matter that your feelings are one-sided?”

Atem was left with the strange feeling that it should have been obvious that saying that would bother Kaiba. He almost kicked himself for saying it, then wondered if he'd subconsciously wanted to sow a seed of curiosity. “Well,” he said, “Pegasus thought if I just kissed you again—privately, you know? If I pushed just a little, you'd, well, sort of, eh, forget yourself.”

Kaiba stood so quickly that it almost looked like he'd been launched from his chair. For a moment Kaiba looked so extremely angry that Atem half expected him to take a swing at him. Instead, he nodded. “So he thinks I'm wrapped so tight I'll hit anything, does he? Go ahead, then.”

“Huh?” Atem gaped at Kaiba.

“I said, go ahead then. Take your best shot. You want to kiss me, right? Crawford obviously thinks I'll melt like a popsicle on summer asphalt. So go ahead, try it. You're not going to get a better chance.”

Atem frowned. “I'm not sure I like it this way. You're making it a challenge.”

“And how do you want it?”

He rolled his eyes. “Well, I was kind of hoping … you know, most people kiss as a mutually-desired activity, not a way of proving a point.”

“I'm not 'most people.'”

“That's for damn sure.”

Kaiba stared at him expectantly. “Well?”

“Fine, fine!” Atem replied irritably. “I'll admit that I wanted another chance, but I'm going on record that this is _not_ how I wanted to do it.” He looked at Kaiba, who was still standing motionless on the other side of the desk. “At least let's move to the sofa,” he said.

“Whatever.” Kaiba walked over to the sofa and seated himself. Atem sat next to him.

_Whatever. Whatever, indeed,_ Atem thought. _I don't care what attitude you're taking, this is my chance. Even if you're pissed off and determined not to like it, at least I get to touch you again._

It was hard for Atem not to feel at least a little bit excited, and he didn't have to feel guilty because he'd laid it all out for Seto and Seto had even challenged him to go ahead. He could hardly suppress a smile. In fact, didn't he _have_ to do it? Seto wouldn't be satisfied unless he validated his response, right?

“What are you waiting—” Seto began, but he was cut off when Atem suddenly slipped his arms around him and kissed him again. Once again, Seto was caught with his lips slightly parted and Atem took full advantage of it, kissing him deeply.

To Atem's surprise, Seto didn't suddenly end the kiss, pushing him back, but instead pulled him in, wrapping his arms around him and taking over the lead in the kiss, pressing Atem's lips further apart and deepening the kiss even further.

The desire to say “I love you” was boiling up within Atem like an unbearable itch, when suddenly Seto pushed him back violently with one hand against his right shoulder, his other hand balled into a fist pulled back to strike. An expression of horror registered on Seto's reddened face. “Seto?” Atem asked.

Seto's face worked for a second or two, then he spat, “This is your fault!”

“What? How?”

“You've … you've made me … weird,” Seto managed to utter, standing. “I've never felt at all like this. Not until … not …”

“Not until I kissed you?” Atem offered.

Seto stared at him, appalled.

“I thought so,” Atem said, as though that confirmed it.

“Go home.” Seto walked back to the desk and seated himself, locking his eyes back on the screen and resuming his typing.

“But don't you think we should talk about it?”

“No. Things were better before I started talking about it. Talking about this with you is a bad idea. Besides, I've wasted enough time. I have a proposal to look over on top of everything else I have to do, and—”

“Isn't there anything—?”

The long fingers paused on the keyboard for a moment. “You've done more than enough already!” Blue eyes closed, just for an instant, then, “Go home.”

“All right,” Atem said sadly as the typing resumed.

As he turned toward the door, Seto spared a glance upward and said, “Isono will take you home. Meet him in the lobby.”

“Right. I remember.”

. . .

It felt weird to sit in the huge limo by himself, driven by this stranger. Isono wouldn't hear of letting him sit up front, and he couldn't get him to chat. _No wonder Kaiba has him in such a trusted position_ , Atem thought. _He won't even risk saying something that he might regret about his employer_.

Atem tried looking out the window and reading the signs. _Look, a MacDonald's_ …

Try as he might to put his mind on superficial things, he couldn't stop thinking about how Kaiba turned the kiss around on him, fiercely pulling him in.

_You've made me weird._

He knocked on the glass that separated him from the driver. “Hi. Do you mind letting me out here? I want to walk the rest of the way.”

“But Master Seto said you were ill.”

“I want to get some fresh air.”

“If you say so,” Isono said uncertainly, but he pulled over anyway.

He stepped onto the sidewalk feeling that it wasn't a lie at all; he did feel ill. All this emotional turmoil was giving him an upset stomach for sure. And he did need the walk and the fresh air. He needed room to think.

_You've made me weird._

Had he? He had a seriously bad feeling. Was it guilt? He really screwed up by taking that dare, but he'd admitted it and apologized—over and over—and he'd tried his best to make up for it. Hadn't he?

Then, again, he'd continued to hope that Kaiba would come around and maybe at least give him a chance. At least try to see his point of view, right?

On the other hand, he was totally honest about what Pegasus was planning, so that wasn't on him, was it? The second kiss was _Kaiba's_ idea. He'd given Kaiba every chance to get out of it.

So why did he feel so lousy about it?

He'd like to think it was because Kaiba reacted so badly to the situation, but he knew in his heart that that wasn't it.

“Hey, Atem! Hey!”

Startled, Atem looked to the street. There on his motorbike was Honda. “You're sure buried in thought,” he said. “I've been following you for a block!”

Atem felt a flush rise all the way from his neckline. “Sorry about that.”

“Hey, if you don't need to go home right away, do you want to grab something to eat? I think there's an American hot dog joint near here somewhere. I know how you like the American food.”

. . .

After Atem was safely out of the hotel room, Seto sighed with relief and ran a hand through his hair. Surprised, he held his hands out in front of him. Were they trembling?

He was greatly annoyed. All these sleepless nights, all this tension—could it be that it was all simple sexual frustration? _I could have solved all this simply by masturbating?!_ he thought, annoyed. Typically he had no trouble channeling that sort of excess energy into his work, so he hadn't even considered it as a possibility. Human foibles were so damned inconvenient!

He rested his hands on the keyboard for a minute, considering. He really didn't want to interrupt his day in concession to his body's demands, but the tension within him was a huge distraction, and it was only getting worse. If he wanted to do something about it, he would have to act quickly, before Isono returned, but he figured it wouldn't take long given how long it had been since he'd done anything of that sort. Of course, once he was more relaxed, no doubt he'd be tempted to take a nap to catch up on his sleep, which might pose a problem. On the other hand, now that he knew exactly what the problem was, it was only getting worse, like an itch you couldn't reach. Only now he knew he _could_ reach it.

And there was one other thing. He was trying to put Atem out of his mind, but he couldn't quite seem to do it. The fact that he'd actually kissed Atem back—he wanted to chalk it up to his sexual frustration, but was that all there was to it? Remembering the kiss, he considered how it made him feel. He'd wanted to push Atem down and—and … he wasn't quite sure what. He wanted to think about it, but, then again, he didn't. That was all part of the weirdness that Atem had brought into his life.

It was just like his other little problem, which seemed to be getting bigger and bigger the longer he sat thinking about it. He either had to start working and put it out of his mind until tonight or do something right away before Isono got back.

Just as he was reaching a decision, he heard a sharp rap at the door. “Yes?” he called irritably. Looking down, he discovered that his hands had slipped off the keyboard and onto his thighs; he quickly adjusted his clothing and placed his hands in typing position again. Glancing toward one of the many mirrors in the room, he quickly checked his hair and appearance, trying to pull himself together.

“It's Sato, sir. You wanted me?”

“Yes, yes, come in” Seto called. He was somewhat relieved to have the chubby, distinctly unattractive, little man to distract him. “We have a proposal to go over.”

_Nothing like a nice, intricate proposal to calm one down_ , he thought drily. _I'll just have to think about ridiculous_ health _requirements later._

. . .

“So, Honda, are you going to tell me what this is all about, or are you going to make me guess?” asked Atem.

The two sat with a tray of hot dogs and Cokes between them.

“I think you know what I want to talk about,” said Honda. “I don't have to tell you that I thought what you did the other day was pretty low, do I?”

“You're talking about the dare, aren't you?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you don't have to lecture me because I _know_ that I screwed up.”

“Good. So you're not going to push yourself onto Kaiba anymore?”

“Wait,” he said, his mind going into overdrive. _Push myself onto_ _—?_ Honda wasn't just talking about a cruel joke, he was talking about forcing things, and … _wasn't that what Pegasus was …?_

“Shit.”

“Atem?”

“I was working the product announcement for Kaiba just now and he had me running errands for Pegasus—”

“Pegasus _J Crawford?!_ ”

“Yes, but—”

“You _met_ Pegasus J Crawford?”

“It's not such a big deal! We all know Kaiba, don't we?”

“It's not the same! He goes to school with us!”

“He's still a celebrity!” Atem said irritably. He was still raw from realizing that the man he was obsessing over could probably have just about anyone he wanted. “It's just that we see him every day. We forget who he is and what he represents.”

“But we can't forget how annoying he is. Sorry. Go on, Atem.”

“Anyway, you remember how Pegasus comes off on the shows.”

“Yeah, kind of … creepy?”

“Well, he's exactly like that in person. Only more so.”

“Yee …”

“You said it. Anyway, he advised me to … eh, kind of, eh, _press_ Kaiba. Only, find a private moment this time.”

“Atem! That's the exact _opposite_ of what you should do! What Kaiba hated most about what you did is that you didn't show him an ounce of respect! If you do this—How would this be any different? So what if no one would be looking! Even so, if you don't have his go ahead, you're not showing any respect for him, are you? So even if something happened, it would be forced, so he'll feel … well …”

Atem felt horrible. “He'd feel violated. Manipulated. Forced. And if he kissed back—” Atem tried not to think any further than that, but his mind raced recklessly on. He put his head in his hands helplessly, trying to rein in his thoughts somehow. “If he kissed back, he'd never forgive me.”

Atem felt some relief that he didn't play it as Pegasus suggested, but how much better had it turned out?

“That's right. … And, _ew_ , could you not paint me a picture? Bad enough I was there for the dare.”

Atem felt like banging his head on the table. “Thank god that Isono guy was in his room! At least, he was at first.”

“You're saying you were left alone?”

“Yeah, he had to send Isono out to get some contract guy.”

Honda looked at him expectantly, the straw of his Coke hanging from his lips, forgotten. After a long moment of waiting, the straw slid back into his drink, abandoned. “So?” he demanded. “Did you or didn't you?”

“I thought you didn't want a picture,” Atem said, annoyed.

“No, but, you know,” he complained. “I'm just trying to help.”

Atem sighed. “I told him all about Pegasus' plan and why he suggested it. I said it was stupid, but …” Atem frowned and looked at Honda. “He made it into a thing. Like Pegasus said he couldn't handle himself.”

“Like a dare,” Honda said flatly, his mouth setting into a grim line.

_Dare_ , Atem thought. _That's right, I said he was making it a challenge_. He sighed again, more deeply this time. “You're right. I knew it, but I went through with it anyway. I kissed him.”

“And you thought it was a good idea?”

Atem took a moment. “Actually, no. I didn't like it that he was, kind of, making it about proving something. But it was kissing him. Kissing him with his permission. Honestly, Honda, am I supposed to turn that down?”

It was Honda's turn to sigh now. “I suppose that's a lot to ask,” he conceded, “but you had to know that no matter what happened, it wasn't going to be good for you. If he didn't kiss back, well, that's not good. And if he did, then … whatever he planned to prove, he, well, he didn't.”

“Yeah, would have been helpful to have that advice at the time.”

“Someone as smart as you? Shouldn't need it.”

“You try resisting a chance to kiss someone _you_ —Hey, you ever get the chance to kiss Shizuka?”

“Jounouchi's sister? Are you kidding? He guards her like a bulldog.” He paused to wolf down the last of his fries. “Besides,” he shrugged, “she's just a kid.”

Atem smothered an impulse to laugh. “Keep telling yourself that,” he said.

“Gee, thanks a lot,” Honda growled. “But back to your situation. So you kissed him. How did he react? From your mood, I'd say not really well.”

“Yeah, to say the least.” Atem frowned a little, then added, “Except, at first, I thought it was going to be really good, because he kissed me back.”

“What? He kissed you back and you're upset?”

Atem shook his head. “The thing is he stopped and got all bent out of shape about it, saying he was all weird or something like that.”

“Well, then! Hold the phone! This isn't all bad. There's definitely some heat between you two, then, but … 'weird,' eh? That's not as good. Obviously it bothers him that he liked it. Still …” Honda looked thoughtful. “We need to figure out a way to turn it around for you.”

“But he seemed pretty mad at me when I left,” Atem said glumly. “And I'm out of excuses to talk to him, too. What'm I going to do?”

“You really do have it bad, don't you?” Honda said sympathetically. “Aren't you even going to eat that dog?”

“No. I'm not hungry.”

“Great! I'll take it, then.” Honda dug in. Between bites, he said, “We need to find some strategy for you that's actually going to work. The problem is that Kaiba didn't really trust you to start with and whatever trust he had you pretty much shot to hell.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“It is what it is.” Honda stuffed a few of Atem's fries into his mouth and said, “Your idea of helping him out was a good one, though. Did you do a good job?”

“Well, he sent me home early sick—”

“That's too bad.”

“That's why I was wandering around when you found me, but he did say I did a pretty good job.”

“He did? That's a good sign. From what I understand, he's a demanding boss.”

“How do you know?”

“My cousin works at KaibaCorp. It's a large employer, you know. Just because I want to be a sports star doesn't mean I come from a family of idiots.”

“Like Jounouchi.”

“Like Jounouchi.” They stared at each other, then Honda added, “Well, not Shizuka—”

The two laughed together. Atem was already beginning to feel a little better. “So what do you think I should do?” asked Atem.

“You need to take it easy and build his trust. Show him you care about _him_.”

“But … he's not a girl.”

“Can't guys be discriminating?” Honda shrugged. “He's an intellectual. I figure, intellectual guys tend to act more like girls than regular guys do, anyway. You know, thinking things over more? And regular guys could stand to think less with their lower halves sometimes. It would get them into less trouble.”

“Present company included?”

“Did I say anything?” The two laughed again, then Honda said, “You're awfully bright, but when it comes to him, not so much. You're no Don Juan and when he's the other party involved—with his head in his inventions and business all the time—no wonder things are awkward. One good thing, though: looks like he's probably gay—or at least bi. And there has to be some attraction, or _something_ , if he kissed back. So there's that.”

“So what do you think I should do?”

“Well, the main thing is you and everyone else have been making all the decisions, and Kaiba's obviously a control freak.” Honda pointed a French fry at Atem and said, “Y'know what you gotta do? You have to step back and let him make the next move.”

Atem couldn't help thinking that letting Kaiba make the next move was hardly “treating him like a girl,” but he let it slide. Forcing things on Kaiba really wasn't working. Nevertheless, Atem pointed out, “It was Kaiba who made the decision this time, you know.”

“But it was a _dare_ , Atem. Call it what you like, it was still a dare. Whether it was by you or Pegasus, he  was pretty much called out, Atem.”

“You're right. There's not much else I can do,” Atem sighed, relenting. “But I don't know how I'm going to stand it.”

Honda smiled, leaning back and draining the last of his Coke. “Think of it as your penance,” he said.


	6. Trial and Error

Monday was difficult for Atem. He'd spent the remainder of the weekend trying not to think about Seto, which only resulted in his thinking about Seto almost continuously. Now he had to somehow manage to ignore the man in his presence. Right.

Meanwhile, Seto was somewhat more at ease, having identified his issue and taken care of it over the weekend. Having caught up on sleep and, his bruises now significantly faded, facing the usual annoyances of school life was much simpler. Still, he couldn't quite dismiss the memory of kissing Atem from his mind once the KaibaCorp event was complete. At certain times, it proved to be an especially tenacious image.

As he closed his locker door, he half-expected Atem to appear with some excuse or apology, but he was nowhere to be seen. Seto felt some twinge of emotion that he identified as relief.

* * *

The lunch period found Seto seated in the robotics lab as usual, pursuing a new tack on the problem that he'd assigned himself. Finally he seemed to be making progress again after a week of fruitless setbacks.

“Well, well. It seems as though you're no worse for wear.”

Without looking up, Seto said, “Otogi.” He finished his current soldering task and gave him the same sort of look he would a fly he was about to swat. “Did you come just to check on my bruises? How _kind_ of you. Oh, did you stop by the KaibaCorp event this weekend? It was very successful. I can send you the press clippings if you'd like.”

Otogi's expression turned a little sour. “No, that's all right, I was there. Congratulations.”

“Oh, yes, doesn't your father have a major title coming out this Christmas season? I hope our offerings won't overshadow his too much.”

“I'm sure we can all share the market,” Otogi growled.

“Thank goodness all those pranks last week didn't distract me from my event,” Seto said, taking his tone light and jovial, “because I'd hate to have to go on the offensive. You know, I never really got around to showing you what I could do in our little contest, but if you'd like a demonstration of how I could make your life miserable—”

“That won't be necessary,” Otogi hastened to say.

“Are you sure? Because it just doesn't seem quite fair to leave you in the dark, and it would be no trouble to—”

“No, the speed with which you squelched the internet campaigns were evidence enough of what you can do.”

“I don't think so. But I don't suppose you want to see what I can come up with if I engage my imagination,” Seto mused, “fun as that might be.” He looked up from his work to look Otogi directly in the eye. “If you don't want to find out what I will do when I'm sufficiently motivated—to you or to your family business—don't ever cross me again. In any way.”

He returned his attention to his work, picking up his soldering iron. Otogi, effectively dismissed, hurried to get himself out of the lab. But before he could get to the door, Seto added, “Oh, and Otogi?” halting him in his tracks.

“You won't ever mess with Motou again either. Not if you know what's good for you.”

Without looking back, Otogi nodded and scuttled out the door, leaving Seto wondering why he'd added that particular codicil. Was it simply because Atem had caused him so much trouble?

“That has to be it,” he muttered, putting his tools down. He leaned back and started going over his design and comparing it with his work, making sure that everything was in order.

* * *

And then there the classes that he shared with Atem, history, then calculus. Calculus wouldn't be too bad because Atem sat several seats away, but he sat in the next seat in history.

_That had never been a problem until last week_ , Seto thought, frustrated. But now he approached the class with some trepidation. Last week he'd been a bit concerned what Atem would do, but now he had the additional concern that he couldn't quite trust himself.

His own reaction when he'd tried kissing Atem hadn't been what he'd expected. He'd told himself all Sunday that it was just sexual frustration that had resulted in such a strong reaction, but, in the end, he couldn't be completely sure.

So, there he was, sitting in his seat in history class, waiting for Atem to arrive, with those thoughts circulating through his brain, not making his life any easier.

When Atem finally did arrive, he didn't try to talk to Seto, but simply continued the rather vapid conversation that he was engaged in with Jounouchi. Seto tried to tell himself that he was relieved, but he wasn't entirely convinced. But it was better that way; otherwise he wouldn't be able to concentrate on the subject matter at all.

And it was boring as all get-out. They had progressed through the industrial revolution and were tackling the factors leading up to the First World War. Seto was very glad that Mr Yakimura had called on Atem this time and he was going on (and on) about instability in the Austro-Hungarian empire and fears of Slavic unrest and ambition. To Seto, a lot of it was nebulous and speculative. There were a lot of reasons for it, and, ultimately no reason … just like a lot of really bad things that happen all the time. If you don't know what to do, you just start punching, right? Like Ushio.

He wondered if Mr Yakimura would like that answer. Probably not.

But the tediousness of the subject and the fact that Atem had to go on so long about it wasn't altogether good because Seto's mind was tempted to wander. And, especially with Atem's voice droning on, the place it wanted to wander back to was the kiss they'd shared on Saturday. Repeatedly, Seto pushed the thought from his mind only to find it the center of his attention.

_I really don't care about Serbian nationality groups of the early 20 th century … The revisions to the partnership contract with Industrial Illusions should be ready about now. Atem did well with him, despite his machinations. Funny how Pegasus caught on to his “issue” right away and attempted to use it to distract me. … Could he have been right? No, not even Atem thought—but when Atem—wait, I am _ **not** _thinking about that! … The Ausgleich? This is_ so _boring!_

By the time he got up to go to Calculus, he was sure he'd been sitting in history class for at least three hours. His head was splitting.

* * *

On the way home from school in the limo, Seto thought it over. Now that Atem had stuck that _idea_ in his head, it was hard to just let it go and go back to normal. Was it that Atem had just stirred things up, or was it Atem specifically? He wasn't really used to thinking about people he knew—not in _that_ way, anyway—girl or guy. But now, Atem … Did this mean he was gay? Or was it just that Atem had kissed him?

Other than the fact that this sort of threw his assumptions off, he couldn't help but wonder how it might interfere with business. (Did this sort of thing ever bother someone like Pegasus?)

But what if it was just that he'd just been incorrect in the assumption that he could get along just fine without a partner at least until he'd gotten out of school? Juggling business and school was so demanding that he didn't even want to consider adding something like—and how he hated the term!—a “relationship.”

Of course, what if it was just sex that he craved and he wasn't particular about his partner? Seto didn't like that idea very much; he'd always considered himself rather discriminating, after all—wouldn't only the best do? But what if he had inadvertently placed himself in a position where he was, in a sense, starving? Then his reaction to Atem would be the only response he was capable of.

Another possibility was that he was gay and Atem was his type. This carried its own major downside as far as Seto was concerned. First, Atem had forced all this on him! He was still majorly pissed off about that and he couldn't figure out a way to forgive Atem for it. Even throwing him to Ushio for a sound thrashing wouldn't really do it. Second, say they got together in a “real relationship;” how was he going to find the time for it? He wasn't getting enough sleep as it was. Plus Mokuba was already getting shorted.

Seto growled. This would be much better if it was just about sex and he could solve everything with a quickie every couple of weeks.

He arrived at home still unable to work it out. With business to catch up on and Mokuba to tend to, he decided to just sleep on it.

… Which left with far too much on his mind to distract him during school the next day. And school just wasn't demanding enough to take his mind off of all this.

“Are you all right, Kaiba?” asked Bakura in chemistry lab.

“I'm fine.”

“You seem distracted. If you want me to run the experiment—”

“No, I'm fine. The procedure for this experiment is simple …” he began, then it hit him. “Experiment! That's exactly what I should do.”

“Kaiba?”

“Nothing, Bakura. It doesn't have to do with class. Now, for the titration …” Suddenly, it was easier to focus. He could test his theories experimentally—and he didn't even have to be overt about it. The best thing is that it would all fit into his company schedule. They were even planning an event that would work. It had been planned for next year, but there was small gaming conference scheduled for the next weekend that would work for it. He could kill two birds with one stone.

Seto pulled out his cell and quickly looked up the contact. In only a few minutes he'd made all the arrangements. And the best thing about it was that it was for the coming weekend.

* * *

The very fact that he'd planned the experiment for the weekend made the rest of the week go a little more easily. Seeing Atem every day was still difficult, but at least he could tell himself that he might find an alternate outlet for the tension that he seemed to cause.

The one thing he couldn't help wondering is whether Atem really believed that everything had settled back to normal so easily. He glanced at him occasionally out of the corner of his eye, but mostly he seemed to be paying attention to class. Once or twice he thought he might have caught him glancing back, but it was just a swift impression that he thought was probably his imagination—all part of the weird feeling that Atem gave him just by being around.

At last the weekend came, bringing with it Domino's Fall Gaming Conference. It was just the quarterly city conference, not a big deal like the Spring Gaming Convention, but it was the largest quarterly, coming as it did right before Christmas. With all the gaming companies bringing their latest to show to the hard-core gaming consumer, the turnout would be larger than usual.

Even without his experiment, Seto was pleased that he'd decided to reschedule the focus group for female gamers to this conference. It would be a good way to gather input and get some prototypes together for the convention. He'd put the burden on the focus group planner, but it had been in the works for some time, so it wasn't like they'd come in unprepared. Of course, the facilitator probably hadn't planned on having Kaiba sitting in the back of the room.

Nevertheless, it didn't take long for everyone to become engaged and the conversation to take off as though he wasn't there. It gave Seto ample time to observe the group. Indeed, as he'd predicted, the focus group had drawn a good number of well-known female gamers. Several duel monsters champions were present, including Kujaku Mai, Vivian Wong, and Rebecca Hawkins.

Seto had always considered Vivian Wong a bit aggressive. She had already made her interest known to him in no uncertain terms. He wasn't sure whether she rated him as a catch for his wealth or gaming ability, but either way, she was more than a little heavy-handed. And when any male gamer happened to mention Mai to Seto, they generally mentioned their lustful desires for her somewhere in the same conversation. When she spoke up, he took the opportunity to observe her closely. To be honest, although he appreciated her forthright attitude, he found her a bit brassy.

By the end of the focus group, he found himself far more pleased by the data that he was getting than the attendees. Why weren't they more interesting?

At last the facilitator asked that everyone join them at the KaibaCorp-hosted party.

* * *

Elsewhere at the gathering, Atem eagerly went over all the new offerings with Jounouchi. In the back of his mind, he was sure he heard his conscience (which sounded an awful lot like Honda, for some reason) telling him that he was here hoping to glimpse Kaiba Seto, if only whilst plugging his company's wares during the inevitable KaibaCorp presentation. Fortunately, Jounouchi's enthusiastic narration drowned most of those warning voices out.

“Hey, look! Look!” Jounouchi was saying as he pointed toward a table in a corner. “They've got the new version of the Black Helicopter Invasion board game out for hands-on demo! Wanna try it?”

“Ok, why not?” Atem said, looking around the hall.

Jounouchi dragged him over. “You lookin' for someone?” he asked. “Or maybe tryin' to avoid someone? I don't know who you'd be tryin' to duck, though.”

“No, nothing like that. I thought Bakura might show up,” he fibbed.

“Bakura? Yeah, that would be likely, huh? He's really into RPGs.”

As much as he'd told himself that he wasn't here for Kaiba and he didn't want to get himself in Kaiba's way, sitting in a remote corner for an extended period still got on his nerves. He and Jounouchi ended up playing for a while, drawing a little crowd of onlookers. As happy as that made the manufacturer, it bothered Atem to spend so much time on it. And with all those people standing around, he couldn't see anything at all.

But Jounouchi was in heaven. “Can you believe that they gave us 30% off coupons?” he smiled.

“With all the help we gave them, they should give us a free copy of the game,” growled Atem. If he hadn't been so happy to get away, he would have negotiated for one.

“You think so?” said Jounouchi, looking back wistfully.

“We even missed most of the product announcements,” complained Atem.

“Didn't you see the ones for KaibaCorp and Industrial Illusions already?”

“Well, mostly, but I wanted to see if there was anything new or if there were any special promotions for the conference.” _Or if I could see how Seto's doing_ , he thought. “They're going to throw a free cocktail party tonight,” he said. “It's only an hour or so from now. Let's go to it.” _So I can maybe have another chance to see Kaiba_.

“But they're not going to serve _us_ liquor!”

“They have a special area for underage kids that serves sodas and things. And there's food.”

“Food?! Why didn't you say so in the first place?! Of course we're stayin'.” Jounouchi looked around. “Where did you say this thing was? And snooty Kaiba's actually throwing this wingding?”

“Kaiba's not so bad. Besides, it's good for business.”

* * *

The cocktail party was very well attended. Free food was popular, but free drinks were even more popular. Even with a huge number of underage attendees, there were enough adults to keep the bartenders busy.

A large proportion of the focus group accompanied Seto to the party, spreading out as he approached the bar. Seto was greatly annoyed because he was having a difficult time detaching Vivian Wong from his arm. “I'd really love a guided tour of KaibaCorp some time,” she said, looking up at him.

Seto beckoned toward his team, and Isono walked over. “Isono, could you have one of the men show this young lady around the KaibaCorp building? The basic tour. Thanks.”

“Uh, Seto—” But Isono had already peeled her away and was introducing her to a young man in a well-tailored suit.

Seto sighed in relief and stepped to the bar, where he was greeted by an iced tea and a chuckle. The iced tea was waiting for him, prepared by the vigilant bartender; the chuckle came from an amused Kujaku Mai. “She's very persistent, Kaiba,” she said, waving her mojito in Vivian's general direction. “Be careful, or she might undertake an all-out assault on your house.”

“I don't like to be attacked,” Kaiba said.

“Ah, you make it sound like you're not entirely off the market, then?” Mai gave him a flirtatious smile. “Don't worry, I'm not asking you to marry me!”

“That's good. You do realize I'm still in high school.”

“And doesn't that make Viv scary?” Mai laughed. “Yeah, you're a looker, but I'd say you're a bit young for me.”

“Hn. Thanks, I think.”

“Aw, you can take a compliment for your looks as well as your brains, you know. You have to be aware that you're a good-looking guy.”

Seto shrugged. “I haven't really thought about it that much. I'm a busy man—”

“That's right, the articles say that you don't even date.”

Seto blinked. “The magazines report on that?”

“You obviously don't read the right magazines.”

“I think it's because I _do_ read the right magazines. I don't read the wrong magazines.”

“Have it your way.” Mai looked as though a lightbulb suddenly lit up above her head. “You don't really have much time to socialize, do you? Do you want me to set you up with someone? I'm sure I know someone closer to your age who you might hit it off with. A duelist, maybe?”

“I'm beginning to wonder if that's a good idea.” He sighed. “She'd have to be intelligent, and … why am I discussing this with you?”

“Oh, I don't know, because you don't have anyone to talk with about it, maybe?” Mai signaled to the bartender. “Here, come on. Come to a table and talk it over with me and see if I can't help you out a little. I promise I won't spill to reporters! Hell, you can do all sorts of good for me professionally, or at least give me gaming stuff, so why would I narc on you?”

Seto didn't know how she could help, but she was right about one thing. He really didn't have anyone to talk to about it. Mokuba certainly wouldn't have any useful advice, and talking to him would only prove embarrassing. And how could he talk to Isono? He was an employee. Talking to Atem was definitely out. His options were limited at best. So … “All right,” he sighed, and followed her to a table.

* * *

Atem and Jounouchi entered just in time to see Kaiba and Mai sitting down at a table together. “Damn, the rich boys have all the luck!” Jounouchi exclaimed, gesturing toward the secluded corner they'd retreated into.

Atem looked at Seto and Mai sitting with their heads close together, and his heart sank a little. He knew that Mai was a few years older than they were and wondered whether she could really have a serious interest in him. He did know that she had a little blue convertible—and that she had a reputation for using her considerable endowments to extract value from her dates—so she could conceivably be seriously interested in his bank account. There were a lot of women who would marry him simply because he was a billionaire—and then there was the fact that he was a devastatingly _handsome_ billionaire …

He sighed. “You OK?” Jounouchi asked.

“Uh, just agreeing with you. Some people have all the luck.” — _like_ _Mai_ , he added in his head. “Let's pick up that food,” he said.

Jounouchi headed out to the spread of snacks and loaded down a veritable platter of sliders, chicken wings, eggrolls, and various other bar food specialties. He found a table where Atem met him with two sodas. “At least you have your priorities straight,” Atem said.

“Yep. But I wouldn't mind dating a gal like Mai. Can you say 'hot'?”

Atem looked toward the table. “Oh, yeah,” he said.

“I have dibs,” Jounouchi said.

“Hm?”

“Dibs. On Mai.”

“Sure. Fine.” Atem forced his eyes off the couple and onto the pile of food. He picked up a chicken wing.

“Hey, that's mine!”

“You can get more.”

“Hey, you two!” Another huge plate of food and soda appeared on the table. “I got this for you,” said Anzu.

* * *

In the corner, Mai pushed one of the two mojitos that she'd ordered toward Seto. “Drink this,” she said.

“I did mention that I'm underage,” he said.

“You did, but you're Kaiba Seto. Tell me you don't have access to alcohol if you want it.” She shrugged. “Alcohol helps friendships along, Kaiba. It loosens inhibitions so that you can talk a little more freely. Don't tell me you can't use a little loosening up!”

“I'm happy un-loosened, thank you.”

“I'm not asking you to get drunk, Kaiba, just …”

“Loosened,” Seto grimaced, eying the mojito.

“Yeah, loosened. Come on, how can I help you if I don't know what you want? You said you needed someone to talk to.”

“I don't recall actually saying anything like that, and I'm beginning to get the feeling that this was a mistake.” Seto was positively glaring at the mojito now. Wasn't the idea to be around some attractive girls and see how he felt? Right now he felt distinctly uncomfortable. He looked up at Mai, his brows knitted. She was an extremely attractive woman, yet she'd claimed to feel little attraction toward him, and the feeling was pretty much mutual. He looked at the mojito again. It wasn't as if he'd never tasted alcohol. He took a sip. The cocktail was sweet, perhaps overly sweet. Still, he drained the glass.

“Not all at once, honey!” Mai said, rushing to put a hand on Seto's. “You want to loosen up, not melt all over the floor.”

“It's just one cocktail. I'm not going to drink out the bar.”

“Well, let's stop here for now. Anyway, Kaiba, why I wanted to talk. Yeah. It just seemed to me that the signals you were putting out were just a little … confusing.”

“Confusing?” Seto's frowned slightly. “And—”

“Like you want the company, only at the same time, you sort of don't—you know what I mean? And,” she shrugged, “I actually sort of get that.”

“You get that? I'm not sure I do.”

“No, really. It's easy for me to attract male attention, I mean _really_ easy. But they're not really interested in me, if you know what I mean.” She rolled her eyes. “It would be false modesty for me to pretend that I don't know I'm a good-looking woman. Men want to be with me. But another good-looking woman would be just as good as far as they're concerned—probably better, because that woman probably wouldn't be as smart or as willing to take advantage of their weaknesses. I'm one cynical bitch, pardon my language.”

“And how does that make us anything alike?” Seto demanded, annoyed. He hardly did the same thing that she was describing.

“What I'm saying is you attract people, whether it's with your money or your looks. Hell, it could be brains or power for that matter. But, the thing is, none of these people are attracted to Kaiba Seto, they're attracted to that rich dude, or that handsome dude, or whatever. You get me?”

“Hn. But you don't want to date me.”

She shrugged. “Normally, someone with a bank balance like yours? I'd have been around long before now.”

“But I'm … too young?”

She smiled. “For one thing. Also, you don't strike me as the sort of guy who just goes out and sleeps around.”

“Of course not!”

“But weren't you thinking about a short-term thing, just for tonight?”

Seto's eyes widened in surprise. He couldn't help it. How could she be so close?

“Don't worry about it,” she said. “It really isn't obvious, if that's what you're worried about. I'm good at this sort of thing because … well, I take advantage of men. And, like I said, I'm not interested in taking advantage of you.”

Seto frowned again, trying to understand it. “But if I'm also taking advantage of the situation, then …”

She chuckled. “I really don't think you know what you're getting into. Besides, why would I want to spoil a good thing?”

“What do you mean?”

“I guess you might not know. I've been involved with focus groups and beta testing for KaibaCorp for some time. Plus there's the invites to tournaments. KaibaCorp has treated me pretty well. If I messed with you, all that would be shot to hell, wouldn't it?”

“I don't suppose it would improve things.”

“Anyway, I don't think you really want to date me anyway.”

“And why do you say that?”

“Simply because with all of these functions and times I've met you at KaibaCorp—and dealing at the casino—I'm always dressed something like this,” she waved a hand along her curvaceous body like a model indicating a “ _New Car!_ ” Seto recalled that, yes, she usually wore bustiers and extremely brief miniskirts. “I don't think that in all that time you've once looked me over. In my experience, that usually means a man has very strict girlfriend monitoring him or …”

Seto sighed. It was clear what she was getting at. _Or isn't interested in women at all._ Really? How could it be that obvious to her when it wasn't very obvious to him? Was it just that he hadn't been interested in anyone and just assumed that the right woman hadn't come along?

Across from him, Mai shrugged and said, “Besides, you sent Viv packing. And she would have made for an easy night's pleasure—with adequate precaution, of course!”

When the waiter delivered Mai's next mojito, Seto grabbed it and took a large gulp. “Get Ms Kujaku another,” he said.

“Oh, Kaiba, it isn't like you …” she stopped and stared at him for a long moment. “You really didn't know.”

Seto scowled back at her. “It's not like I've had a lot of free time to date or daydream about my ideal mate.”

“Come now,” she said. “I mean, you're a man! Just looking around, don't you know—”

“I'm not some lout who automatically drools when someone waves any scrap of meat under my nose!” He sighed. “I expected that when I met the right woman …” His scowl intensified. “I expected it to be a woman.” _Fuck_. Hadn't he actually put all his attention on Mokuba, his business, and school? Just dealing with Gozuburo and surviving—getting the company into shape—he hadn't really thought beyond that at all. He finished off the purloined mojito and placed it on the table, where it reflected his melancholy gaze.

“Well, I suppose you could be immune to my charms,” she allowed doubtfully. “But from what you say, I'm guessing that you need some sort of connection to get your motor running, no matter what. So I'm not sure whether it would do any good to set you up anyway.”

“What are you saying?”

“If it's taking you this long to figure things out, you need to find a very specific type of person.” She leaned across the table. “You don't kid around, Kaiba. You need to fall in love.”

“I …” Seto stared back at her, a little shocked. Just then, a waiter breezed by, depositing a mojito in front of Mai. Seto downed it.

“Hey!” Mai protested, then she changed her mind and waved it off, saying, “Never mind, you probably need it more than I do. If you're still interested, though, I can try setting you up with someone,” she pulled out her phone and started fiddling with it. “Hm …”

Seto took another gulp of the purloined mojito and looked around the room at the crowd as Mai absorbed herself in her gadget. _Could she be right? Did that mean that Atem …? Surely not._

Just then, as though his thoughts caused him to appear, Seto caught sight of Atem's unmistakable hair near the door. He was chatting amiably with a group of his friends. _So typical_ , Seto thought. That blond kid and this time the girl with the huge bustline. Anzu, was it? She seemed to have just arrived, standing next to the table. As his attention drew in, the girl drew in, she leaned over—no doubt Atem could see right into her blouse—and hugged him.

Seto's heart lurched unaccountably.

“… I'm sure that he'd be happy to meet you, and—” Mai was saying, but Seto suddenly stood up.

“I have to go,” he said.

“Are you sure? He's very smart, like you, and—”

“Maybe some other time. I have to go.” He found himself half-stumbling down two steps from the level of tables where they were seated as Mai told him it was quite all right somewhere in the background. He wasn't sure what he was going to do.

And he didn't find out because at that moment he ran into a solid body.

“Hello Kaiba-boy!”

_Shit._

* * *

“Ask and ye shall receive,” Atem said to Jounouchi. “Have a slider. What brings you here, Anzu?”

“I decided to find out what you two see in all this gaming stuff. It would be fun to hang out with you guys more.”

Atem placed one eye on Jounouchi warningly. He knew that Anzu had a crush on him and he didn't want Jounouchi to embarrass Anzu by teasing anyone about it. Fortunately, most of Jounouchi's attention was focused on finding out how many sliders he could fit into his mouth.

“So have you found any games you're interested in trying yet?”

“Oh, lots!” she cried enthusiastically. “I don't know why I didn't come the first time you invited me!”

“I think you mentioned something about dance cla—ahh!” Jounouchi's kick earned him a quick frown.

“They have some terrific dancing games right here!” Anzu said, not missing a beat. “I didn't even know they existed. “Dancing, karaoke, even fashion!”

“Fashion?” Atem and Jounouchi responded in unison.

“Yeah! Thanks so much for telling me about this!” Impulsively, she leaned over and hugged Atem tightly.

_Shit!_

That one word was the sole thought that filled Atem's brain. What if Seto was looking in this direction right now?! He suddenly stood up, his cheeks red. “I have to go to the bathroom,” he said.

“Right now?” Anzu said, nonplussed.

Atem nodded, stumbling away. He looked around, panicked. Seto was no longer at the table with Mai. Maybe he left already? No, Atem couldn't be that lucky. Atem looked a little further down and there he was.

He was literally in the arms of none other than Pegasus J Crawford!

 

 

**Author's notes ...**

Sorry for the wait! But this turned out to be a long chapter for me, so hopefully that helps make up for it. Although, it was horribly difficult to get out (and I've been correcting up to the last minute!), which isn't necessarily a good sign. This is a bit of a transitional chapter and I'm feeling the strain ... hope it doesn't show too much! Let me know how I did!

Thanks for the support for this story!


	7. Detour

Atem raced over to Isono. “You’re in charge of Kaiba’s security, right? He’s being assaulted.”

Isono looked at Atem. “I’m under orders not to interfere with Seto-sama’s affairs unless he’s in danger. He makes his own decisions, and he’s more than capable of defending himself against unwanted advances.”

“But …” These advances weren’t wanted, were they? Seto had so obviously not wanted Pegasus pawing him, right? So wouldn’t this be an exception? Atem scowled at the man, almost choking as he somehow managed to get out, “But he’s had a couple of drinks, right? So he’s not exactly making the best decisions right now, wouldn’t you say—?”

“But, sir, that’s not my job to evaluate. If I step in now, Mr Kaiba is likely to take offense, and—”

“B-but—Pegasus!”

“Honestly, Sir, ordinarily I wouldn’t think that Mr Kaiba would have any interest in associating socially with Mr Pegasus—”

“But orders are orders. Right,” Atem seethed. “Seriously, why am I wasting my time with you?!” Maybe Seto allowed himself too much latitude! _I guess I’ll have to pull him out of the fire myself_ , he thought.

Meanwhile, Seto, regaining his balance, struggled to remove himself from Pegasus’ grasp. The man had quickly grabbed hold of his shoulders upon impact and was showing no signs of letting go. “I can walk,” Seto stated. His instinct was to fight his way free, but causing that sort of scene in front of dozens of potential customers ran against his grain.

“Of course you can!” Pegasus replied amiably, without letting go. “But while you're here, may I ask how you're doing with that partnership agreement?”

“Why are you asking me that? Contact my aide tomorrow morning. Can I go now?” Seto was vaguely aware that he sounded terribly rude, but he really wanted to get away, and, besides, he had a reputation for rudeness anyway.

But now the grip Pegasus had on Seto's shoulders had somehow become more of an embrace, and his face had pushed in closer. “You know, Kaiba-boy, you really ought to think about being nicer to me,” he suggested. “We have a lot of common interests. We could help each other a lot! And not just through _business_ partnerships.”

Seto arched backward, trying to pull his face as far from Pegasus as possible, but only found that it brought his body closer, which had its own drawbacks. “I'm sure I don't know how,” he said distractedly as he considered how best to extricate himself from Pegasus' grasp without coming to blows.

“Well,” Pegasus said, ignoring the wriggling of his prey, “for example, you can imagine that I’ve had a great deal more experience than you have, so I could perhaps—without going into too much detail—share some of that experience—of the world.” Seeing Seto's expression, he hastened to add, “Without becoming too involved, of course, but … not to put too fine a point on it, it looks like the only time you kiss is when, well, you encounter, shall we say, a kissing bandit?”

“You’re—?” Seto forgot for a moment to struggle.

“Of course!” Pegasus replied. “I've never made a secret of the fact that I’m interested. And if you’d like to gain a little experience in, say—” he bent to whisper in Seto’s ear, “—kissing—” leaning back again, he finished, “I can help, you know.”

Seto stared at him, eyes wide, stunned that he’d suggest that in front of a room full of their customers. Moreover, he was a little surprised by his own reaction. He was appalled and disgusted, he was sure of it, but some part of him was also strangely intrigued. He could only think that it was because this guy was several years older and doubtlessly much more experienced. The total effect was bizarre and disturbing.

He was in the process of trying to work out exactly how he felt, and somehow Pegasus had managed to reposition himself so that he was now gently steering Seto toward a side exit, an arm firmly wrapped around his shoulders in a friendly but forceful gesture.

Atem, having left Isono behind, scanned the room urgently for Seto. When a familiar laugh reached his ears, he looked over to find Kujaku Mai gazing at him with amused interest. “Looking for someone?” she asked.

“Well, yes … um, I was going to talk to Kaiba about something. … We’re in school together,” he added, feeling kind of lame.

Mai chuckled. “Yes, I’m sure,” she said, “but he just now left. With Pegasus J Crawford. I’m sure they have business to discuss. Or something.”

Atem didn’t like the teasing tone of her voice. “I’m sure he’d prefer to discuss business during the day.”

“What if they aren’t discussing business?” she suggested. “Maybe they don’t want to be interrupted?”

“In that case, I’m positive that Kaiba would _prefer_ to be interrupted,” he stated emphatically.

“Oh, but _I’m_ positive that Kaiba can take care of himself.”

Again with the wasting time. Atem gave him his harshest glare and said, “Just tell me where they went, please.”

“Certainly. They went through that door,” she said, pointing.

Sighing with relief, Atem only hoped they hadn’t gotten far as he scrambled out the door. Odds were that Pegasus was maneuvering Seto toward the bank of elevators, so he hotfooted it in that direction. Fortunately, Seto wasn’t being particularly cooperative, so Pegasus’ progress had been slow. Atem found them about half-way down the main hall, Pegasus making some sort of soothing sounds as Seto responded with random efforts to shrug him off. Atem rushed up, laying an urgent hand on Seto’s bicep, his mind in overdrive.

“Excuse me, please?”

“Atem-boy! No time now! Kaiba-boy and I are just about to take a private meeting—”

“Oh, it’s just that, um, Isono sent me to tell you he needs to discuss that _thing_ before you leave the party, so …”

“That thing?” echoed Pegasus. “Why didn’t he come himself?”

“That thing? … _Oh!_ Oh yes, _that_ thing! That’s right. Sorry, Pegasus, we’ll have to meet some other time,” Seto said with some relief, reaching up to pull Pegasus’ hand from his shoulder.

“But there won’t be a better time,” Pegasus enunciated with special emphasis and a forced smile.

“I’m counting on it,” said Seto. “See you later.” He sighed and allowed Atem to help him back into the party. “I suppose I owe you thanks. I thought I would have to force him off me. It would be a problem.”

“A scuffle between two prominent CEOs? I can’t see why.” Atem said wryly. He looked Seto over. “I thought you didn’t drink.”

“I don’t.”

“How many?”

“Hn. Three? Maybe?”

“I guess you don’t. How are you feeling?”

“All right. I’ve been steadier.”

“I tried to get Isono to help out, but he seemed to think you had it all under control.”

“It wasn’t like anything was going to happen,” Seto affirmed. “I just didn’t want to start an altercation in a public area.”

“Which is why I wanted to enlist your man’s help in creating a believable subterfuge to extract you from an uncomfortable situation.”

Seto eyed him in such a way that made Atem wonder if the alcohol was hindering his comprehension. “Hn … I suppose there might be some non-critical situations in which Isono could intervene …”

“It might save you some social maneuvering,” Atem suggested. “Meanwhile, I think that most of the business opportunities have wrapped for today. Why don’t you call it a night?”

Seto looked around. “This party’s a bust anyway,” he said. “I suppose I will.” He looked around the room and signaled to Isono, who nodded and headed out a door.

The two stood together awkwardly for a few moments. Atem wanted to say something, but everything he wanted to say were in forbidden topics. He wanted things to be fixed between them already. “Well, then,” he said, “I guess I’ll see you at school.”

“See you around,” Seto agreed. He drifted toward the exit.

Atem watched, feeling strange and vaguely unhappy. When Seto was finally out of sight, he remembered that he’d left his friends hanging and rushed back over, apologies flowing.

* * *

Seto sat in the back of the limo on the ride home with a distinct feeling of unease. Wasn’t there something he was going to do? He hated that nagging sensation. What made it worse now was that his brain was in a sort of fog, and he wasn’t used to that.

He thought back. Right. It was Crawford. Crawford had interrupted him in the middle of doing something important—and Crawford had practically assaulted him, so the incident had pushed what he wanted to do right out of his head. _Damn him, anyway!_ Seto cursed silently.

So, what was it that—Atem! Seto frowned, thinking about it. He’d seen Anzu wrapped around Atem, no mistake about it … but then Atem had appeared to extricate him from Crawford’s non-too-gentle clutches not long after.

What did it mean?

Seto shook his head. It didn’t matter what it meant because he wasn’t going to get involved with that guy.

Only … what if Mai was right? She had said he was most probably gay, and, not only that, he most probably had to be “in love” to do anything about it.

He felt his mind begin to ask a question, but he squelched it with all his might. _I’m not going to think about that_ , he thought forcefully. Hell, he didn’t even know for sure that he was even gay, yet! Those two people had nothing to do with him. Not a thing.

Only … for Atem to move on like that, so soon, was insulting; a blow to his pride. Not that he admitted it, even to himself, but his pride was smarting as it was, after the past couple of weeks. Thank goodness nothing happened with Crawford or things could have been even worse.

The whole night—the conversation with Mai, seeing Atem with Anzu, Crawford, everything—was distasteful. He spent the rest of the ride trying to put it out of his mind with limited success.

Once home, with the prospect of a shower and bed on his mind, Seto headed up to check on Mokuba. He found him happily working late on some homework at his bedroom desk. “Making work to wait up for me?”

“I wanted to say goodnight,” Mokuba said, “and besides, I wanted to catch up.”

“All right, then,” Seto said.

“You’ve been drinking?” Mokuba said, surprised, as Seto neared.

Seto sighed. “A little. It was … an experiment.”

Mokuba’s brows knitted as he tried to understand. “And how did that work out?”

Seto smiled a little, and said, “I’d say not well. I won’t be doing that again.” _In any way, shape, or form_ , he added mentally. “Good night, and get to bed.” He leaned down and kissed his brother on the forehead.

“Sure thing,” Mokuba said, standing and kissing his brother on the cheek. “Goodnight, Nii-sama.”

Seto stopped for a moment and looked at Mokuba.

“Is everything OK?” asked Mokuba.

“Hn? Oh. Yes, everything’s fine. I’m just … I’m really not going to try this again,” he said.

* * *

Seto walked slowly through his bedroom into the connected bath. _Was_ that _what it was?_ he thought, annoyed. No wonder he hadn’t realized right off. It wasn’t until he’d felt Mokuba’s lips brush his cheek. So innocent, brotherly, and still …! It was good to take a shower, because he was disgusted with himself.

No matter how much he could tell himself that his state of intoxication made Crawford more bearable, the fact that his offer—basically to “teach” him to kiss—was the least bit intriguing made him disgusted with himself.

But it was the only plausible explanation, and he didn’t like it. What he did like—had liked—was kissing, and with a little loosening of inhibition, his subconscious desire for more of it had somehow manifested and asserted itself.

Now, with rivulets of water running over his body, he gently pressed two fingers to his lips, closing his eyes. _Shit_.

_No more alcohol!_ Seto told himself firmly. He scrubbed himself vigorously from head to toe.

But now that he’d put his finger on the issue, Seto couldn’t prevent the incidents that caused it from coming vividly to mind. _Atem’s kiss …_

There were things you could do solo, but kissing wasn’t one of them. Of all the things to get hooked on! But wasn’t this the whole reason he’d decided on trying a dating experiment in the first place?

He stepped out of the shower and began the process of toweling off and preparing for bed. He felt more sober now, and Mai’s observations began to come back to him. She seemed so sure in her conclusion that he needed to commit to any relationship.

Well, that was inconvenient.

It sounded time-consuming and emotional, both things that he had little patience for. Most of his time was scheduled already! Was it even going to be possible to find someone who could—or would even be willing to—understand the demands on him?

He picked up his cell from where he’d left it with his clothing. He didn’t have the contact in his list, but it was in the KaibaCorp database. “Mai? Go ahead and arrange a meeting with your friend. Do you also have a female friend you could …? Yes, I understand, but I really think that it’s necessary to compare to … Right. And … yes. I’ll remember this favor. Your discretion is appreciated.”

That done, Seto climbed into bed. He was almost asleep when a thought hit him, forcing his eyes wide open. What would he have done if Crawford hadn’t come along? _Shit_ , he thought, _did Crawford save me from making an even bigger fool of myself tonight?_ He hated to think of the rumors that would spread around school if he’d gone over to Atem’s little gathering. Atem might not say much, but Seto was pretty sure that blond kid was a loudmouth.

What Mai had said … and his desire to interfere with Atem’s apparent new relationship … even if he was thinking about moving on, Atem had claimed he was attracted to Seto, so wouldn’t it be easiest to talk to him about dating? At least seeing if it might work out? But …

He didn’t want to admit that he was stuck on Atem! His pride rebelled at that! Atem had kissed him without permission! As part of a stupid game. Then he’d humiliated Seto by demonstrating that he had no control over himself. Maybe all he’d wanted was another chance at a kiss, but that’s not how Seto had experienced it. And now, hugging some girl like nothing had happened? How could he just look past all that?

On the other hand, what if Mai was right?

He just wouldn’t believe that. He'd make things work out, one way or the other. He was fine before all this started, so he should be able to just go back to not worrying about dating at all, if all else failed. Easy.

Right?

But right now, as he tried to settle down to sleep, it didn't _feel_ easy. Not at all.

* * *

The next week was a long one for Atem. He was glad that he’d been able to rescue Kaiba—sort of—from the clutches of Pegasus, but that awkward parting lingered unpleasantly in his mind. Whenever he thought about it, he started to wonder whether it wouldn’t be better to just give up on Kaiba. But then his pride and stubbornness cut in. He just couldn’t give up; not when he believed Kaiba was attracted to him. It was just that stupid dare! If he could only figure a way to get Kaiba past that!

Honda was right. He had to give it time. During lunch periods, he found himself staring morosely in Honda’s general direction, which usually prompted something like, “Huh? Do I have something on my face?”

“Uh, no, it’s nothing.”

“Could you stop staring then? It’s creeping me out.”

“Oh. Sorry, Honda.”

This sort of thing happened several times over the course of the week. Jounouchi complained that he was too quiet and forced him to accompany him to the arcade twice to cheer him up.

By Friday’s math class, Atem was counting the minutes for the end of the week to arrive so that he could just go home and try to put everything and everyone out of his head, but Jounouchi had other ideas. “Do you understand the assignment?” he asked.

“Not really,” Atem admitted. He hadn’t been paying attention to anything but the clock. He just wanted to leave.

“You have some sort of in with Kaiba, right? Ask him before he gets away!”

Atem frowned. “He’s not just going to drop everything to help me—”

“If I don’t pull things together, I’m going to fail, and—”

“All right, I’ll try.” It wasn’t like his own math grades were that good, and it gave him an excuse to talk to Kaiba, no matter how flimsy. He trotted after Kaiba, catching up to him at his locker. “Um, Kaiba, sorry to bother you, but uh, I—and Jounouchi too—we didn’t really get the assignment and we hoped you could explain it to me—”

“I don’t have time to stand around after school explaining simple math concepts to you,” Seto said with irritation. He pulled out his notebook and removed several pages. “Here. If you don’t understand these notes, give me a call. I’ll break them down into remedial detail for you. Right now I have a date to prepare for.” He turned to go down the hall.

“A … date?”

“I have a life, Atem.”

Atem was left standing behind Seto’s retreating form thinking that there were a lot of people who would debate whether Seto had a life or not. Plus, as far as he knew, Seto didn’t date, but could he really call him on it? “Wait, Kaiba,” he called, running after the man. “ _Wait!_ ”

“What now? Don’t make me late!”

“Um, it’s just … your reputation is that you don’t date.” Atem kept his intonation neutral and hoped that he hadn’t managed to offend Seto even more than he already had with the dare.

“Perhaps, but _lately_ I’ve had to reassess things,” Seto said with pointed emphasis. “Now, I _must_ be going.” And with that, he turned and strode purposefully out the door to his waiting limousine.

 

**Author's notes ...**

Thanks for your patience. I apologize for taking so long to get this chapter out. I ended up re-writing from scratch once because I decided I didn't like the direction I was taking this, but I think I have the right vision now. I knew this would be a difficult write when I started because it's basic romance and the characters just don't want to turn around and get where they need to eventually go. Kaiba's stubborn that way. So it's getting longer than I wanted it to be. Anyway ... the result is that I'm not sure how much I like how it's going; hope it's OK.


	8. Flying Blind

Seto arrived at the restaurant a little later than he’d planned. He’d wanted to pick this woman up, but she’d apparently wanted to meet him there. Whatever. She was a few years older than he was, so perhaps she was one of those girls who knew what she wanted. If they didn’t hit it off, there would be no charade of taking her home—which was fine with him.

She was already seated at his reserved table when he arrived. So she was punctual at least. And good-looking, too, it turned out. She had a hourglass figure, golden skin, black hair, and large blue eyes. Plus she was expensively if conservatively dressed; perhaps not a gold-digger? That would be a relief. He sat down across from her. “Ishizu Ishtar?” he said. “I’m Kaiba Seto. I was delayed—”

“Not to worry,” she said, consulting her watch, “you’re exactly on time. I’ll be blunt, Mr Kaiba: I wouldn’t ordinarily agree to this sort of arrangement.”

“And what induced you to agree to it this time?” Seto found her manner a bit aggressive, but he couldn’t help admiring it a little. After all, he was no less direct than she, and he hated the way most women tended to beat around the bush.

She shrugged, one delicate shoulder barely hitching upward. “You are the chief figure of an important company. You could be an important contact for my family, if nothing else.”

Seto was partially successful in suppressing a smile. “So dating me isn’t a goal?”

“I’m sorry if that disappoints you.”

Seto was slightly surprised to find that he didn’t find the admission the least bit insulting. However, this woman had no personal knowledge of him, and this only validated his public image—the idea that she would go to these lengths to add him as a business contact. “Not at all,” he said.

To Seto’s relief, Ishizu’s admission dispelled the awkwardness of the meeting and thereafter they were able to talk comfortably about business. The Ishtars were an Egyptian family of considerable wealth and had many business interests, some of which were compatible with those of KaibaCorp.

And eventually many more things they had in common began to come out. They had both lost their fathers and been forced to take leadership positions in their family businesses; both had younger brothers that they felt responsible for; both had fathers who had been harsh and demanding.

“Do you mind my asking why you had Mai set this date up?” Ishizu asked.

Seto did mind a little, but it he wasn’t going to let Ishizu know that; besides, it was an obvious enough question. “It’s all right,” he said. “With everything on my plate, I had originally planned putting off dating until after high school.”

“Very prudent.”

“But someone at my high school did something recently that’s forced me to think about revising that plan.”

“Ah,” Ishizu said. She looked Seto over carefully. “But not someone that you’d consider asking out?”

“Given the circumstances, I’d prefer not to.”

Ishizu paused thoughtfully, then said, “You seem such a decisive person. I find it interesting that you’d ask Mai to set something up for you.”

Seto eyed her, uncomfortable with the sensation that he was being cross-examined. “I thought about asking someone myself, but, frankly, once I started looking at the possibilities, I decided it would be more efficient to have someone more experienced handle the selection process.”

Ishizu’s expression became amused as she said, “So she’s handling HR while you take the interviews.”

Annoying, but perhaps accurate. “I suppose you could put it that way,” he agreed.

“Don’t worry, I’m not offended.” Ishizu took a moment to toy with her after dinner coffee, then said, “So, this person who inspired this plan in the first place; you say circumstances prevent you from dating that person? Otherwise you would?”

Seto hated to admit it, but begrudgingly he said, “Maybe. Probably.”

“Circumstances. Does that mean this person is involved with someone?”

Seto thought of Anzu, but he couldn’t be sure, and if Atem and Anzu were an item, it was recent. “I suppose it’s possible,” he said, “but it doesn’t seem likely.”

“Then it’s something else.” She frowned. “You didn’t get turned down?” she asked, a hint of surprise in her voice.

“Quite the opposite.”

“Hm.” She looked somewhat baffled for a moment, then seemed to get an idea. “Then perhaps she offended you?”

 _She_. Seto almost snorted at the assumption, but said, “Actually, yes. There are certain things that I can’t just let go.”

“I know that I don’t know you very well, so please forgive me if I’m getting too personal. Obviously, I don’t know what happened between you and this person, but it looks like she got you thinking about rearranging your life. So there must be _something_ between the two of you, one way or the other. If she made some sort of mistake, maybe you should give her another chance. Everyone makes mistakes. You don’t fire everyone who makes a mistake at your company, do you?”

“It depends on the mistake.”

That didn’t seem to be exactly the answer that Ishizu was expecting, but she replied, “You do believe in giving people second chances, though, under the right circumstances?”

“Yes,” he allowed. “You seem awfully interested in this person you never met,” he said.

She smiled, a renewed warmth entering her expression. “Maybe I’m thinking of my brother. He made a lot of mistakes, got in a lot of trouble before he straightened out. If he hadn’t been given a few extra chances … I guess we give extra chances to people we care about, don’t we? If your little brother screwed up, for example—”

Seto silenced her with a sharp look. But Mokuba wasn’t so perfect that he never made mistakes. Seto could never cut him off, she was right about that. Was it a female thing to use these unfair arguments? He didn’t want to discuss it any further, so he changed the subject. “Do you have a ride home?” he asked. “I can drop you.”

Ishizu said that it would be no trouble to take a taxi, but Seto insisted. It turned out that she was staying with her brothers on their yacht, which allowed them a leisurely drive along the harbor.

“I’m sorry that this wasn’t much of a date,” Ishizu said. “It’s probably my fault.”

“Hardly. I’ve already admitted that I have no experience with this sort of thing.” He glanced out the window, considering. “In fact, that’s why—fuck it.” He gently grasped her chin and kissed her. Asking her permission was just too embarrassing to think about.

“What was that for?” Ishizu asked.

“I need the frame of reference, frankly.”

To his surprise, Ishizu gave him another warm smile. “Then you should have a decent frame of reference,” she said, and returned the kiss. It was gentle, warm and lingering, more like a romantic kiss, but it didn’t feel the same as Atem’s kisses at all.

“Hn,” Seto grunted, pulling away.

“Like kissing your sister, right?”

* * *

The next day, Seto had Isono drop him off at the boardwalk, where Mai had set up the second meeting. Mai hadn’t said much about this prospect except his name and that Seto could recognize him by his red carnation. When he got to the set of outdoor tables, he spotted the man right away, and wondered why Mai hadn’t just described him. After all, there was no mistaking him for someone else. He was a huge, burly blond in a biker jacket. Seto couldn’t imagine anyone less his “type.” Still, he was curious as to why Mai would even consider setting them up, so he sat down opposite the man and said, “I take it you’re Rafael?”

The man skewered him with a blue eye and nodded. “Kaiba?”

As the two dined, Seto let the man talk. It turned out that they had more in common than Seto could have imagined. They were both wealthy, both orphans, and they were both very self-reliant. However, there were some differences in the details, and Seto saw some potential conflicts in the similarities. In fact, the more Rafael talked, the more he disliked him.

“So, what about you?” Rafael said as they finished their meals. “I know a little about you from the news, but only the basics.”

“Look,” Seto said, “I don’t think this is going to work out, so it’s pointless to continue talking—”

Seto had glanced at the bill and was in the process of pulling out a few bills from his wallet so that they wouldn’t have to linger, when Rafael interrupted. “Oh, come on,” he said, “this is a date! Have some fun. This is about getting to know each other, so let’s give it a chance. Let’s walk along the boardwalk. Even if you hate the conversation, you’ll at least get some exercise.”

“I suppose I could,” Seto said. He disliked being so accommodating, but he needed dating experience; even a frustrating experience would be helpful. The fact that he didn’t care about this guy made this so much free practice. So as they slowly strolled along the shoreline, he roughly sketched out the well-known particulars of his past. He really didn’t want to share anything too private. To his amazement, Rafael seemed interested, if not fascinated.

When Seto finished, they walked on for a little while in silence. At last, Rafael sat down on a bench facing the ocean and motioned to Seto to join him. Seto thought about it, then shrugged and sat next to Rafael. “OK,” Rafael said, “all that was interesting enough and tells me where you come from, but I’m missing something. I know why I'm here. Why don't you tell me why you're here? You don't strike me as the sort of person who'd ordinarily let Mai set something up for you.”

“I suppose not.” Seto sighed. “Frankly, I don’t have time—”

“And yet you had time to meet with a perfect stranger.”

“Not entirely,” Seto pointed out. “Why do you think I consulted with Mai in the first place?”

“Because _she’s_ such an expert,” he replied sarcastically.

“ _You_ accepted,” Seto pointed out.

“I’ve always wanted to meet you. This seemed like a perfect opportunity. And if you weren’t quite so, er, rigid, I could really go for you.”

Seto wasn’t sure how much he liked the sound of that. “Hn,” he said.

“Look, Kaiba,” Rafael said, forcing Seto's gaze up to meet his. “I get it; for whatever reason, I’m rubbing you the wrong way. But don’t let that keep you from listening to my story.”

Seto thought that he’d heard all about Rafael’s tragic past over lunch, but he waited, watching the surf roll in.

“You seem like the kind of guy who likes to have it all under control—I know that because when I was a kid, I was that way too. I always knew— _knew_ —that I was the smartest person in the room, never mind that I wasn’t even ten yet. I could out-think just about any adult I met. But a tsunami has a way of putting things like that in perspective.

“I know you have a brother, so I know you don't know—not like I do. Like I said, I was on an island for several years, all by myself. I'm not looking for sympathy, and I'm not trying to brag. It's not like you're likely to give me pity or admire me anyway. I like that about you, actually, and I wish you liked me better. But, whatever. What I want to say is this: I know what it is to be alone—really alone—and, let me tell you, there's no pain like it.”

“If you have a point, could you get to it?” Seto griped. He would have broken in sooner, but he kept reminding himself that this was supposed to be a date, and you were supposed to be somewhat respectful of your partner and listen to what they have to say.

“Sorry,” Rafael said. “I’m getting there, I promise. Where was I? Ah yes. When I was alone on that island, I had a lot of time to think. Too much. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could have possibly saved my brother and sister. They were right there when the ship went down. It would have been really hard, but it might have been possible if I'd been really lucky and tried hard enough. But if I really looked at the facts, I had to admit there was nothing I could have done. Besides, there was no going back, so it was useless to beat myself up about it endlessly and torture myself thinking about what I could have done.”

“That's true,” he allowed, “there was nothing you could have done, but if you felt your siblings' deaths were your fault, didn’t you feel a need to pay the penalty for them?”

“Are you saying I didn’t? I still pay a penalty every day. If you're saying I should have killed myself for failing to save them, think about this. Is it more difficult to die to pay for their loss or live a life worthy of them? I now know that my brother and sister would not approve of my giving up; they would be glad I survived. I’ll tell you this: it’s far more difficult to carry on than to give up.”

“This is all well and good, but has nothing to do with me.”

“Perhaps. All I'm saying is that people of high intellect and ability tend to have trouble letting go of their own mistakes. It’s hard for them to forgive, themselves most of all. And if someone gets close enough, there’s a greater chance they might see us slip … so it’s hard to let people in.” When Seto's gaze sharpened on him, Rafael shrugged. “It's always been hardest for me to forgive myself,” he said. “Pride is stubborn and unforgiving.” He reached out for Seto's hand, which Seto snatched away. Shrugging again, Rafael said, “Pride makes for a lonely life. Defending it is a hard and unending task. Losing my family and living on that island taught me that relaxing my pride wasn't the worst thing that could happen.”

Seto just looked at him. _Why is he confessing all this? Is this normal for a date?_ “You realize that I don't like you,” he said finally, giving him a frank, intense stare.

“Yeah, I know.” Rafael smiled, returning Seto’s gaze unflinchingly. “But I kind of like you anyway. You're bright, blunt, and assertive. _Challenging_. I like that. Guys who are nice and just let me say and do anything I want? Boring. If only you were just a little more … flexible, maybe. It would be great if you could let me in. If you could let anyone in.”

Seto couldn’t think of a way to respond to this, so he said, “I suppose I should thank you for an interesting afternoon.” He stood. “Good-bye.”

“Hey, wait,” Rafael said, getting up and grabbing Seto’s wrist. “You initiated this. You're not going to leave without at least a farewell kiss, are you?” And before Seto could respond, Rafael leaned forward and, taking his shoulders into his powerful grasp, kissed him soundly on the lips. Seto immediately pushed back, revolted. The kiss with Isis had been sisterly, but this was unwanted, disgusting.

“Yeah,” Rafael said, laughing, “you really don't like me. Too bad, I could work with this. But don't worry, I won't try to see you again.” He admired the view as Seto turned and began striding away toward the roadway, pulling his cell from a pocket. “I hope you'll think about what I said,” he called.

As his limousine rolled up, Seto sighed with relief that his so-called dates were over with. He’d gotten far more advice in the past several days than he could stand. Who were these people to tell him what to do, anyway? Still, there was something about the experience that nagged at him.

* * *

Honda was pulling his basketball and sneakers out of his closet when he heard a pounding at his door followed by his mother calling up to him. He pounded down the stairs, surprised. He wasn’t expecting Jounouchi this soon. When he got to the landing, he was even more surprised because it was Atem waiting for him at the front door.

“What the—?” Honda said. “Jounouchi and I were going out to play some hoops.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t mean to stay long, it’s just that … hell, I don’t have anyone else to talk to. No one else has really caught on yet, and …”

“Kaiba.”

“He went on a date. I’m worried. I can’t stop thinking about it. What if he finds someone?”

Honda trotted down the remaining stairs. “Atem, if it goes that way, you’re just going to have to accept it. That’s the horrible thing about loving someone, right? If they decide to love someone else, you have to try to be happy for them and move on. If you care about them, you want them to be happy, right? It sucks, but that’s life.”

“I know all that!” he said, a little more stridently than he wanted to. “It’s just … you’re right, it sucks. Life sucks. Big time.” It was all he could do to keep tears from coming.

Honda seemed to sense that and pulled him into what he hoped was a manly hug. “Come on, Atem, it’s not that bad! It’s not like Kaiba’s such a big prize! You know you’re much too good for—”

Honda stopped when the front door was flung open and Jounouchi strode through. “Hey, Hon … da …” Jounouchi stopped dead, his eyes popping at the scene before him.

“ _Hey, Jou, wai—!_ ” Honda yelled, but it was too late. Jounouchi was already out the door. “Do you think he got the wrong idea?” he asked.

“It sure didn’t look like he got the _right_ one!” Atem exploded. Now he was too mortified to cry.

Things were officially worse than ever.

**Author's notes ...**

Thanks for all the kudos and the comments that you've given me. :) They're very encouraging. I keep thinking that I'm going to get things out more quickly, but they just keep crawling out. I'm sorry about that! I really must buckle down ...

Meanwhile, what is it with the changes to the doc manager? Are we now fixing bugs by removing the features that have them? Hey, I can't add a new story! Maybe we should remove _that_ feature!? Sorry about the sarcasm, but ... frustrated.

Meh, sorry about that, on with actual comments! :D

Again, a challenging chapter, not sure how well it came out, but I think I got it to do what it needed to.

Seto's dates: Do you think Mai might actually select these blind dates? I hope so! I tried. ;) It did turn out to be a little of an advice-fest for Seto, huh? ... poor guy. And he's usually telling the other guy where to get off ... I tried to make it realistic that he'd listen, even for Rafael's part. He really does need the practice! xD

Rafael: My impression of the anime has some antipathy for Rafael on the part of Seto, but this doesn't seem to be reciprocated - and why should it? Rafael's attention is on the pharaoh. So I decided that Raf might actually like Seto because of his similarities to the pharaoh. Anyway, here he thinks Seto has Rafael. ;)


	9. Taking Aim

Sunday left Seto with a pile of work to catch up on, which he took into his home office. He allowed Mokuba to bring in some homework to work on. He wasn’t happy. Even with all the work he’d put in during the week to minimize what he had to do, it would still take a long time to go through. Frustrated, instead of scanning through all of the reports as usual, he resolved to simply read the abstracts and jot down questions for his staff. If he spotted something suspicious, he could go back and read in depth.

Even so, the work took all morning, and he didn’t even get past the administrative work to his engineering tasks. Finally, he stretched and sighed. “Mokuba, let’s take a walk before lunch,” he said.

Mokuba immediately hopped up from his spot on the rug. “For real? I’ve barely seen you all week.”

The two headed for the gardens. As they grabbed their jackets, Seto stole a look at Mokuba. He looked cheerful enough now, but up until then he’d been looking remarkably glum. It was obvious that Mokuba felt neglected. _This is exactly what I wanted to avoid_ , he thought.

“So, Nii-sama,” Mokuba said as he hurried to keep up with Seto’s pace, “How did your dates go?”

Seto consciously attempted to slow to ambling speed since they were simply walking around the garden. “Why don’t _you_ tell _me_?” he replied. “I know you grilled Isono for all the information you could get out of him.”

While he waited for Mokuba’s reply, he wondered what his honest response really was. He certainly wasn’t going to ask either of those people out again. Things had been so much simpler when he didn’t have to think about frivolous things like romance! But that didn’t seem possible any longer.

“You think I gossip about you behind your back with Isono?”

Seto didn’t bother answering that, unable to suppress a small eye roll.

“I still want to hear what you have to say. How was Ishizu?”

“Miss Ishtar was very personable. I think I will hear from her in a business capacity.”

“But not personally?”

“You’ve already talked with Isono …” But Mokuba was giving him a look that insisted that he say something, so he said, “All right, if you insist. She’s very pretty, and we get along well enough, but not that way, so …”

“It’s because she’s a girl, right?”

Seto stopped and gave Mokuba a sharp look. He sighed and started walking again. “All right, yes,” he admitted.

Mokuba hurried to catch up again. “But Isono said you didn’t like the guy—”

“Rafael.”

“Rafael—even more.”

Seto tried not to roll his eyes again. “If I happen to like men, do I have to be attracted to every man I run into? You know, Pegasus J Crawford expressed interest in dating me; would you like it if—”

“God, no!”

“Well, then.”

“Honest, I don’t think that way!” Mokuba protested. “It was just—Isono said the guy was good-looking and pretty nice, so … I don’t know.”

“You think I’m desperate, so I’m not in a position to be picky.”

“No, I—”

Seto gave him a look.

Mokuba frowned. “You’re the one who went on blind dates,” he said, a little sullenly.

“Hn. You’re right, but it was an experiment. I needed to confirm that I prefer men, for one thing.”

“I could have told you that.”

Seto scowled at that. Why was it that everyone else seemed so sure of that when he hadn’t been? Whatever. “But even so, that Rafael was arrogant and pushy.”

“Like you, you mean?”

Seto’s scowl deepened.

Mokuba laughed a little and said, “And other than that?”

“You mean that wasn’t enough? Both of them had the temerity to hand me advice! Of all the nerve!”

“Is that all? What about?”

Mokuba looked genuinely curious. “What? Oh, Rafael went on about, oh, right, about how I’m too hard on myself and should ‘forgive myself’ or something stupid like that.”

Mokuba trudged on for a couple of seconds, then said thoughtfully, “That doesn’t sound so stupid to me, Nii-sama. You _are_ too hard on yourself. You work too hard and when you make a mistake, you punish yourself.”

“I do not.”

“Yes, you do! What about that black eye you got after you got caught in that dare? And that wasn’t even your fault!”

“You think I walked into that ape on purpose?!”

“Maybe, subconsciously.”

Seto did roll his eyes this time.

Mokuba went on. “Maybe you ought to date that Rafael guy, if he tells you stuff like that. And if he likes you.”

“I don’t like him,” Seto commented, but he was pretty sure that Mokuba wasn’t listening because he continued to talk.

“So you were saying? Ishizu gave you advice too?”

“Oh, right. Somehow she caught on to part of my school situation and suggested I forgive the person who offended me.”

Mokuba stared at Seto as they walked for a second, then said excitedly, “Oh, she means that guy who came over! The one who was kissing you in the internet picture!”

“I suppose.”

“You could date him. I bet he’d like that.”

Seto renewed his scowl. “I bet he would.”

“Oh, and that would mean admitting defeat?” Now it was Mokuba’s turn to roll his eyes. “Do you like him?”

Seto didn’t say anything.

“Come on,” Mokuba insisted. “Do you like him?!”

“That’s not the point.”

“So what’s the point, then?”

Seto sighed. “How can I take him seriously when he initiated things as part of a silly challenge? It was a dare that Otogi set up. It’s insulting.”

“But he wants to make it up. Can’t you get over that? If you both like each other, you have to figure a way around that, don’t you?”

“I don’t know if that’s possible. Look, all this stuff about forgiveness is crap. Forgive Atem? Forgive myself? I don’t have anything to regret. I always move ahead. Plus, I think he’s moved on, too.” As if to confirm his resolve to move forward, he hastened his stride, forcing Mokuba to start trotting along again.

“So what are you going to do?”

“I hadn’t thought about it,” he said. Truly, he’d been too busy to give it much thought until now. As much as he’d like to have that time back, he couldn’t drop it at this point. “I suppose I could ask Mai to set something else up,” he mused.

“But you do like Atem … right?”

Seto slowed a bit, to Mokuba’s relief. “Yes. He even makes history class bearable. If it hadn’t been for that incident, I would consider going out with him.” Actually, _consider_ wasn’t the right word for it, but he wasn’t going to say that to Mokuba. He was far more interested in Atem than he wanted to admit.

“Then give him a chance! You know it’s going to take way more time to find someone else,” Mokuba pushed. “Just figure out some sort of devious punishment to torture him with. If he was willing to work your show, he’ll do just about anything.”

“I don’t know,” Seto said. “I saw him with Anzu the other day. He might have found someone else.”

“As if. Not the way he hung around here just to apologize. Besides, it’s you!”

It was true that Atem had been pretty insistent … until he became resigned, that is. And it would solve a lot of problems—and a lot of time. If he could think of a penance good enough to salvage his pride, a host of other woes would resolve. It might actually be worth it. … If he wasn’t dating that Anzu already, that is.

“You don’t understand. What he did—I just can’t get past it. He didn’t even begin to take my feelings into consideration—”

“How about if you punish him? I know! I can help you figure out what to do!” A devious look came over Mokuba’s face, to the point that he might almost feel sorry for Atem if he didn’t feel that any punishment was richly deserved.

Mokuba was running after him as he turned back toward the mansion. “But if he is dating that … Anzu? … I’ll help you work out your game plan to get him back, OK? It can’t be that hard!”

Seto thought about history class. The way that Atem challenged him and made him think about his conclusions was enjoyable in its way. Was it conceivable that this had translated into some sort of affection?

Certainly, Atem had been persistent enough. And Seto was obviously superior to anyone else that Atem might be interested in. So, in reality, all he had to do was convince Atem that he was available and serious. He generally left the sales job to his sales team, but he knew a great product and a strong presentation when he saw one. Sooner or later, Atem would be sold on him.

For once, Seto found himself looking forward to Monday.

* * *

When Seto entered school the following Monday, he felt something had changed. There was something in the air, perhaps a change of mood. Looking around, he spotted a girl sitting on one of the benches out front, clearly in distress, leaning on a girlfriend. Realizing that it was Anzu, he slowed. He was sorely tempted to ask what the problem was, but he knew that if he did, rather than getting the two or three words of information he desired, he’d be roped into a long, dreary conversation in which he’d be expected to provide (gag) emotional support. Leaving it to the other girl—he didn’t recall her name; he believed she was the one all the boys called “Ribbon”—was a trivial decision.

Maybe she and Atem broke up? Well, he wasn’t going to take it for granted. For all he knew, she’d gotten a bad grade or found out she lost a position on the cheer squad. Girls seemed to cry over anything and everything.

As he continued down the hallways, he noticed that they were buzzing with chatter about something or other. The breakup he was hoping for? Maybe. Or …?

Still, he felt somewhat relieved. All those eyes weren’t following _him_. _At least this isn’t about me this time_.

He was heading to Latin class feeling more upbeat than he had in days,when he rounded a corner and saw a knot of students in heated discussion. He made to move around them when one of them noticed him, and, like a striking viper, reached out to grab him by the collar of his school uniform.

“This is _your_ fault!” the boy yelled at him.

“Are you referring to a KaibaCorp product?” Seto replied automatically, peeling the offending hand from his uniform. “Because if you’re experiencing any issues, our service department can help you. I can give you a number for expedited service.” That usually got angry consumers off his back.

“K-KaibaCorp—!” If anything, the boy looked even more apoplectic. Seto looked at him more closely. _Wait_ , he thought, _this is one of Atem’s friends_. Then it came to him. Jounouchi. But the boy was still yelling. “… you mother—”

“Before you exhaust your thesaurus of expletives, why don’t you tell me what this is about?”

“You haven’t heard? It’s all over school by now.”

Seto refrained from replying, _Because of you, obviously_. “No, I haven’t,” he said.

“I went to pick up Honda for basketball and what do I find? Him and my best friend! I didn’t even know he was queer, and now they’re dating!”

“Hold it right there! Him? Him, whom? I don’t see how this is my fault. I’m not even involved!”

“The hell you’re not! You kissed Atem, and he hasn’t been the same since! He—”

Seto felt his heart fall between his feet at the mention of Atem, but he ignored it. “Listen, Asshole, in the first place, I didn’t kiss Atem, _he_ kissed _me_ , and if you hadn’t noticed, that incident was extremely inconvenient for me. And, secondly, what he and Honda do _still_ has nothing to do with me. So if you have a problem with it, take it up with them.”

Without waiting for Jounouchi’s reply, he turned on his heel and hotfooted it to Latin class, ignoring the loud blond following him. No doubt he was late, and they were due for a quiz. As rushed as he was, he couldn’t help thinking about Anzu. Jounouchi must have wasted no time telling her all about it, so …

No wonder. A small expression of disgust crossed his face as he quickly slipped into class. _You’d never catch me breaking down like that!_

Seto wasn’t surprised to find that the quiz was already underway when he sat down at his desk. Fortunately, he couldn’t be better prepared and completed the ten questions in record time, spending about a half-second per each. He could have sworn he was still finished first. He would have hated to blow such a simple test. And because of that dumb blond, too.

But …

Could what he said possibly be true? Atem and Honda? That just didn’t seem possible. Of course, Atem and Anzu hadn’t seemed likely, either. Or was he just being vain?

* * *

For one crazy minute before PE, Honda considered stopping off by the nurse’s office and trying to claim some sort of exotic stomach ailment to get out of class. School hadn’t been going well, and he was hardly looking forward to finding out how Kaiba had reacted to the rumors. Jounouchi and his big mouth!

But there was no way that he was going to slink off; people were talking enough as it was. So, despite his better judgment, he walked into class as usual that day, resolving to give Jounouchi a special beating later.

The sport of the week was met with general disgruntlement because it turned out to be archery, which took them out of doors into air that was a little too refreshing for some. Honda didn’t groan until partners were assigned. “Honda! You and Kaiba! Next target.”

“Um, Coach Nakamura …”

“No complaints! You’ve been matched by skill level.”

_This week is getting better and better_ , Honda thought as he headed toward the target. But Coach didn’t want to waste time repeating things to people who didn’t need to hear them, so he couldn’t very well complain. Kaiba joined him, reflecting his grim expression back to him. Honda tried to listen to the last few instructions that Nakamura was giving, but Kaiba’s bad mood actually lifted his own. _Ha_ , he thought. _So Atem was worried about Kaiba finding someone else? It doesn’t look likely_.

“Is it true?”

Honda looked up, almost dropping his bow. _Well, this is awkward._ He hadn’t anticipated discussing this straight off the bat, but he should have considered the possibility; Kaiba was so blunt. To give himself a moment to recover, he said, “You can shoot first.” He gave Kaiba plenty of room and said, “Is what true?”

Kaiba took his time examining his bow. Testing its draw, he said, “Hmph. As if you didn’t know.” Well, that was true enough, but why give Kaiba a break? Honda wanted to hear it. “What your friend has been spouting all over school. He says you’re dating Motou.”

Kaiba didn’t seem happy with the bow, but he took a shooting stance just the same. Nocking his arrow, he took careful aim, then let fly.

_Thop!_

It hit the bullseye, just off-center. “You’re good,” commented Honda.

Kaiba shrugged. “I can do better. If I’d known we had archery, I’d have brought my own bow. Next time.”

Honda suppressed a laugh. It was just like Kaiba to make excuses for not hitting the target dead center. Plus, he’d called Atem “Motou.” Normally, Kaiba would call Atem by his given name, so this formality was unnecessary. But how was he to answer Kaiba’s question? If told the truth and Kaiba believed him, it might help him out of his current jam, but what about Atem? “So what if I am?” he said carefully.

Kaiba lifted an eyebrow along with his bow and nocked another arrow. As he took aim, he said, “I didn’t even think you were gay.”

_Thop!_

Bullseye. This one was closer to dead-center, just a little high and to the left.

“Even better,” Honda said.

“Of course.”

“Well, I’m not.”

“Not?”

“Gay,” Honda said. “But I was interested in Shizuka—Jounouchi’s sister—so it was painful, really, having him breathing down my neck all the time. She won’t make a move without his approval, so basically it means maybe I’ll get a date when I’m fifty—if I’m lucky. I guess I finally figured it might be just as well to try something different while I was waiting. Between friends, without complications …” Honda shrugged. “You know.”

Kaiba regarded him with the sort of undisguised disgust that Honda supposed was reserved for a slug he might spot crawling over his newly-shined shoe. He had been taking aim, but now paused and lowered his bow for a moment. “I thought …” he paused, scowling and sighed, pulling himself into form again and taking a breath. “I saw him with Anzu the other night and so I thought he was dating her.”

_Thop!_

A little further out, right on the edge of the bullseye this time.

“Anzu’s a friend, so it’s not surprising to see her around. But why are you so interested?”

“I’m not,” Kaiba said. “Just making conversation.” As if to confirm this, released his next arrow.

_Thop!_

“Darn, just missed this time,” said Honda. “But you know what?” he went on, lowering his voice to a confidential tone that he was pretty sure couldn’t be overheard, “I think you’re a coward, Kaiba.”

Kaiba barely paused, but his voice took on a menacing tone. “What did you say?” he demanded. He took his time nocking and drawing his next arrow. Honda could have sworn Kaiba had pointed it at him before putting it to the string.

_Thop!_

This one hit the bullseye dead on.

But Kaiba had to wait for Honda’s response as the all-clear came and everyone collected arrows for the next round of shooting. Honda almost felt sorry for Kaiba as he moved off to the side, taking on the aspect of a winter storm. Walking back to the line, Honda could almost feel the chill.

“Come on, Kaiba,” he said, taking his stance and thinking, _I wish I was half as good at this sort of thing as Kaiba! He probably takes lessons._ “That kiss did something to you or you would have shaken it off by now.”

With that, Honda let his carefully-aimed arrow loose.

_Bip._

_Bip?! How could my arrow land with so much less authority than Kaiba’s?_ Plus, it was off the bullseye, well into the next ring, Honda noted with some consternation.

“That? It was an insult.”

“Yes, but you let Atem work for you, right? And you noticed that he was with Anzu—and you asked about me. You could be with him, but you’re afraid. What are you scared of, Kaiba? That your business will suffer? That everyone at school will laugh at you? That Ushio will beat you up daily?”

Honda was reaching for an arrow when Kaiba grabbed the collar of his jersey and yanked him forward. “I’m not afraid of anything,” he said in a low, dangerous voice. “Certainly not you.”

“ _Kaiba! Honda!_ Is there a problem?”

Kaiba let go of Honda’s jersey and called, without breaking eye contact with Honda for a second, “ _Not at all, Coach!_ ”

“Good! Because your grades have been so good so far. Get back to shooting.”

“Yes, Coach.”

“Right,” Honda said, giving Kaiba a measured look. “ _Is_ there a problem? Because we can discuss it after school if you like. When we don’t have pointy weapons at hand.”

The corner of Kaiba’s lips curled into a sneer. “I don’t think I have anything to worry about where _you’re_ concerned.”

Honda could only grimace. Kaiba had a point. He could hardly compete against him in this sport. Kendo, yes; archery, no. Or maybe … Honda glanced Kaiba’s direction as he pulled out another arrow. Did he mean as far as Atem’s concerned? Well, of course, but Kaiba wouldn’t necessarily know that. But it would be nice to know just what Kaiba was thinking so he could pass along the scoop to Atem.

If only Kaiba weren’t so hard to read!

**Author's notes ...**

Sorry that this chapter took forever (!) to get out! Part of the issue is that this and the following chapter were initially one huge chapter. Rather than post a huge mega-chapter at the end, I decided to chop it in half. If you find the chapter transition a bit awkward, you're not alone! I agree, but I really couldn't come up with anything that seemed very graceful. Hopefully the wait for the next chapter will be short because I only have one scene to rework - but it's the hardest sort of scene to do, so ... yeah ...

I don't have very many comments, but just in case you're interested in this sort of thing ... I must have changed the sport for Honda/Kaiba at least four times! In other words, you would not believe the number of re-writes that went into this chapter. I hope it evolved from "piece of crap" to "half-way decent." ;) Let me know! And, really, thank you for your patience and support! I've received a bunch of kudos lately, which has been very encouraging. :) Anyway, we're in the home stretch!


	10. Three More Words

Fortunately (as far as Honda was concerned), the remainder of PE passed without any further awkward conversation about Atem, dating, or Kaiba’s character flaws, if any.

Honda showered afterward with mixed feelings. He was a little worried that it wasn’t going to work out, but overall, he was glad he challenged Kaiba. He sort of hoped that Kaiba wouldn’t take him up on his offer to work it out after school, though. What if Kaiba challenged him to something he had no clue how to do, like _krav maga_ or something?

When the bell rang for lunch Honda sprinted for the cafeteria. He really wanted to get there before Atem did. That way he might have a chance to head off most of the gossip. Atem really didn’t need any more aggravation after the weekend. Damn Jounouchi, anyway.

When he got there, Atem was waiting for him. “Aren’t you afraid that this is going to add to the gossip?” Honda asked as they joined the food queue.

“I don’t see how it can get any worse,” Atem groused.

“Well …”

“What?” Atem demanded in a grouchy tone.

“I sort of had a discussion with Kaiba in PE.”

“You what?! Tell me everything!”

Honda spelled it out as quickly as he could.

“So you told him we were together?!”

“Not in so many words. He asked are we, and I said ‘so what if we are,’ or something like that.”

“Oh, for …” Atem sighed heavily. “Well, maybe this won’t make things any worse, but I’m not sure they make things any better.”

“I don’t care. That smug bastard! He deserves a serving of his own medicine!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, he ran off and dated other people!”

“It’s not like we had an understanding, you know.”

“But he knew that you liked him, and it seems like he likes you, too, so … I don’t know! It just doesn’t seem right, somehow.”

“This is ridiculous. How can we be jealous of each other when we’ve never even been on a date?”

At this point they had their lunch and carried it to their usual table, where, by some miracle, Jounouchi was already waiting for them. “And _you!_ ” Atem greeted, “I don’t even know why I’m speaking to you. Do you even know how difficult you’ve made my life? And Honda’s?”

“What are you talking about? You’re the ones—”

Honda grabbed him by his jacket collar. “Spreading rumors all over school? You didn’t even stick around to get the story Saturday!”

“I saw what was going on!”

“Oh?” said Atem derisively. “You saw that Honda was trying to console me? So that’s why—instead of helping out—you ran away to tell everyone (and I mean _everyone!_ ) about it? News flash. We are _not_ dating!”

Jounouchi stared at Atem as though he had suddenly appeared there out of thin air. “C-console? What are you talking about? You two were—c’mon! You were hugging! I mean hugging hugging! Like boyfriend-girlfriend hugging!”

“Oh, really!” said Honda. “And how can you tell?”

“Atem had his head on your chest, for god’s sake!”

“Because—” Suddenly realizing that they were all shouting and that everyone in the cafeteria was staring in their direction, Honda lowered his voice substantially. “Because Atem was crying. He was upset.”

Jounouchi's eyes were wide. “What the hell? Why would he be that upset? You never get shook up like that!” He stared at Atem, stunned.

“That’s for Atem to say if he wants,” Honda said, then he leaned back and started shoveling rice and vegetables into his mouth. “I’m starving.”

“Well?” Jounouchi pressed.

Atem looked back at him calmly. “Well, what?”

“So, maybe you’re not together. But what would set _you_ bawling?”

“I’m not telling _you_.”

“Aw, c’mon! Aren’t we still friends?”

“Yeah, but you just don’t understand certain things,” Atem said. _And you hate certain people_ , Honda thought.

“What if I apologize and tell everyone I was wrong about, uh, things?”

Atem rolled his eyes. “The more you say, the more stupid it’s gong to get. I’ll just let Honda beat you up.”

Honda rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “Now you’re talkin’,” he said.

* * *

It was with no little trepidation and some curiosity that Atem walked into history class that day. He had no idea how Seto might possibly react to what Honda had done. So he just walked in and sat down, just throwing a glance toward Seto.

Seto was staring at him with such intensity that he might describe it as a glare. Pretending he didn’t notice, he opened his book to the current lesson and hoped that their teacher would be on time for once.

“What you staring at?” Jounouchi asked irascibly.

“Not you,” Seto replied without moving. His voice was calm enough, but there was enough menace there to keep Jounouchi from saying anything more. Seto didn’t stop staring until class began.

It was totally disconcerting, but Atem didn’t feel like talking to Seto—at least not at school. So he kept his head down and ignored the stares. Which was actually pretty difficult because Seto stared at him before calculus as well. His demanding gaze was difficult to ignore, but somehow Atem managed. Only, by the end of class, he felt exhausted and couldn’t have told anyone what they’d covered in class.

* * *

After school, Honda collected Atem at his locker. “Let’s go to the arcade and blow off some steam,” he suggested. “You’ve earned it.”

“OK,” Atem said. He felt kind of drained, but maybe letting his friends drag him along would help take his mind off of things.

When they got out the door, Jounouchi joined them. “You got him to come?” he said. “Good! I’ll treat.”

“You’re kidding!” Atem said. “You never do that!”

“Well, I need to make up for screwing stuff up. But, um, I’ll have to owe you.”

Atem rolled his eyes. “Figures. Fine. Heard from Anzu?”

“She was still leaning on Ribbon last I saw,” said Jounouchi. “Sorry.”

Atem shrugged. “It’s just as well. She was starting to feel like a duel disk the way she’s been clinging to my arm lately.”

Just then, a black limousine pulled up beside them and the rear window smoothly and silently slid down, revealing Kaiba Seto’s handsome but severe face. “Atem,” he said. “I’ll give you a ride home.”

“Sorry,” Jounouchi called back, “we’re going to the arcade.”

“Very well then,” said Seto, “we can talk later.”

“Wait!” called Atem. “On second thought, I’d rather go home. I am rather tired.”

Honda grabbed at his sleeve. “You don’t have to,” he said with a grimace. “Haven’t you been through enough? Just come and relax for once already.”

“It’s OK. This gives me a chance to set things straight,” Atem replied, pulling away. The limo door opened, and Atem got in.

“Hey,” said Jounouchi, “isn’t the arcade on the way to Atem’s house? Hey, Kaiba, can we get a ride?”

The door of the limo closed, and with a terse, “No,” the window slid closed.

“What’s the deal?” demanded Jounouchi. “We’re going the same way!”

“I’ll give you five good reasons,” said Honda, showing Jounouchi his open hand. “One, two, three …” with each count, he curled a finger into his palm forming a fist, “… four, five!”

“Honda, I have to hand it to you, those are pretty convincing reasons,” Jounouchi said, shoving his hands into his pockets, putting his head down, and shuffling off down the road.

The limo pulled away.

Atem lost no time. Immediately, he started to say, “I’m not sure what you’re thinking, but—”

“I don’t care who you’re with,” Seto stated flatly, not waiting to hear Atem out, “and I don’t care what you’ve promised. I know you like me, and I’m going to do what it takes to get you back.”

“Get me back?” Atem protested. “But—”

Atem was going to point out that they had never gotten together in the first place, but Seto was pushing on. “Whatever that Honda is to you, I know he can’t compare to me. I’m easily a thousand times better than him. All you have to do is give me a chance to prove it to you. In any case, I’m not giving up. No matter how long it takes, I’m going to convince you eventually, so you might as well say yes now.”

Atem smiled. “You’re such a romantic, Seto, how could I possibly refuse?”

“I haven’t a romantic bone in my body.”

“My point exactly. Still,” Atem said, “you’re right. I like you. You’re my first and only choice.”

“Only? But that doesn’t make sense.”

“Well, I think it would be a bad idea to start out with misunderstandings … especially considering how we started out. So you should know that Honda and I aren’t dating.”

“But then why would Honda—?” Seto began, confused.

“Jounouchi had saw something and misinterpreted it. And when you asked Honda about it, he just let you keep on thinking that way. I’m sorry about all that.”

Dark blue eyes stared at him intently for a long moment. “So you aren’t even dating him?”

“No, he’s in love with Jounouchi's sister Shizuka.” When Seto didn’t immediately respond, Atem said, “And you, I thought you had moved on? Didn’t you have a date Friday?”

“Oh, that. It didn’t work out.” Seto leaned back and looked out the window. “I decided that it just wasn’t going to work with anyone else.”

“Really. And why is that?” Atem tried hard to catch Seto’s eye.

Seto continued to stare steadfastly out the window. “After much reflection, it became clear that I love you. So, obviously, no one else will do.”

Excitement boiled up inside Atem. He leaned forward, eyes blazing. He didn’t want to bring it up, but he had to. “I thought you couldn’t get over the dare,” he challenged.

“There is that,” Seto said, “but I figure that if you agree to date me, you’re going to suffer more than enough to pay for that.”

Atem couldn’t prevent a shiver from running down his spine at the offhand way Seto had said that. “Er, what do you mean?”

“I mean that, between Mokuba, KaibaCorp, school, and everything else, there are enough demands on my time already that you’ll barely see me.”

Atem swallowed hard. He hadn’t really thought about that.

“Still want to date me?”

Atem looked Seto over. Now, with him so kissably close, there was only one answer. “Yes,” he said, his voice horse.

“Good.” Seto pressed a button and told Isono to change course for the Kaiba mansion.

“Um, Seto?”

“Yes?”

“Does this mean that it would be permissible for me to kiss you now?”

“Since we are now dating, you may now kiss me—” When Atem nearly leapt forward, Seto raised a hand, freezing him. “You may kiss me when we are in suitably private locations. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t consider the limo private enough—”

“What?! No one can see us in here!” Atem protested, waving around at the darkly-tinted windows.

“ _Ordinarily_ ,” Seto repeated, annoyed, “this isn’t private enough, but today, I’ll make an exception. I’d take it, if I were you.”

Atem didn’t wait, lest the invitation be rescinded, but moved forward to join Seto on the other seat, wrapping his arms around his neck.

Kissing him was every bit as good as he remembered.

* * *

Atem stood plugging away at a game console at KaibaLand, frustrated despite the fact his score was soaring upward. He really should be enjoying this more, especially since he was on the brink of hitting a new record, but the thing was, Seto should have turned up three hours ago. He didn’t have to check the time to know that it had to be after ten. But it wasn’t as though Seto hadn’t warned him. If there was a problem at KaibaCorp, he’d have to work it out.

He might as well just enjoy the game, but it had been days and days! As though to punctuate that thought, an errant alien slipped through his defenses and ate his shooter. He groaned.

“Hey, Atem, look at your score!”

“Jounouchi? I didn’t know you were standing there.”

“I didn’t want to distract you when you were in the zone. But, not too shabby, a new record.”

“Yeah, thanks, Jou.”

“I thought your, uh,” he paused to roll his eyes as his tone became dismissive, “boyfriend was stopping by tonight.”

“He’ll be around. Work’s making him late.”

“I think he’s just rude.”

“He _is_ rude,” Atem admitted, “but he’d be here already if it weren’t for work.”

“I don’t think he cares about anyone’s convenience but his own.”

Atem sighed. “That has nothing to do with it, but I don’t have to explain anything to you. If you can’t be supportive, shut up about it.” Atem wasn’t about to defend his pride to Jounouchi. As if Atem weren’t important enough to Seto for him to be there unless something very important weren’t holding him up! Annoying.

Jounouchi couldn’t help looking aggravated, but he said, “I’m all for you two if you’re happy, Atem.”

“Good.”

“Oh, uh, you should know that Anzu’s here.”

“Oh, god, really? I thought she had dance class.”

“Nah, not today. I think they’re between sessions or something. But—”

As if on cue, Anzu ran up. “Did you have dinner yet? If you’re not seeing Seto tonight, I’ll treat you! Tell me all about how everything’s going!”

“Honestly, Anzu, you don’t have to try so har—”

“It’s no trouble, Atem, we’re still friends!” With that, she grabbed Atem by the arm and began dragging him toward a bank of large game platforms.

“I’m not sure I’m up for dancing,” Atem protested. Ever since he and Seto had gotten together, Anzu had gone into friendship overdrive … and he had thought she was already there. How little he had known. But it was worse for Seto.

Speaking of which …

Atem suddenly found his arm released as Anzu launched herself across the room towards her new best friend, calling, “Seto!”

Proud as he was, even Seto couldn’t help but flinch slightly. Atem hastened his step.

Through gritted teeth, Seto hissed, “That’s Kaiba to you.” He deftly sidestepped her incipient hug as he made his way to Atem. “Can’t you do something with her?” he asked.

“I have tried,” said Atem. “Anzu, would you mind if we got going? We’re already late, so …”

“Oh. _Oh!_ Of course.” She headed off in Jounouchi’s direction. “Hey, Jounouchi!”

“I really need to see if I can find her a boyfriend,” commented Atem.

“If you can find anything that will get her out of my path, it would be convenient for me,” said Seto. “No matter how I ignore her, she keeps turning up.”

“She’s just trying to be a good friend, Seto.”

“I don’t want to be her friend.” As they walked to Seto’s limo, though, he became thoughtful. “Hn. Why don’t I give Mai a call?”

“Mai? You mean the gamer who set you up on those blind dates?”

“Why not? She has lots of connections. Anzu needs a hobby. Even if things don’t work out, she’ll be out of our hair for a while.”

“All right.”

Seto looked thoughtful. “While we’re out it, why don’t we have her set something up for your other friend?”

“Honda?”

“Honda? Do you think so? No. I was thinking of Jounouchi. He’s the one who hates me. He thinks I turned you gay.”

Atem smiled. “Right, and he thinks that I only took that dare because I wanted to show Otogi up. Shows what he knows. Hm. I wonder,” he mused. “You think he and Mai might make a good couple?”

“How would I know? Mai is a few years older than he is, anyway.”

When they were seated together in the limo, Seto asked, “So, where would you like to eat?”

“Can we just go to your place? I’ve been waiting for hours for you. We can forage for something in your kitchen.”

“I was thinking we wouldn’t go there tonight.”

Atem frowned. “What? We haven’t had a chance to really see each other for days, and you’re just going to drop me at home?”

“Not at all. I was thinking I’d like to have you to myself tonight. If we go home, more than likely we’ll have to spend some time with my brother.”

“He is a priority,” Atem pointed out.

“Whom I just saw at KaibaCorp. Besides, we’ll be meeting him tomorrow morning back at KaibaLand. I’ve set aside a chunk of Saturday for the three of us.”

“You’re kidding! Still, I don’t understand why I can’t just wait for you at KaibaCorp. Wouldn’t that be more efficient?”

He was met with an eye roll. “Hardly. How late do you want to start, anyway?”

“So … are you saying I’m a distraction?”

Seto ignored that and said, “You didn’t say what you wanted to do.”

“Well, if you don’t want to go to your house, and if you’re not dropping me at home, then I’m guessing you have something else in mind. I want to get to that as soon as possible,” he said. To emphasize his point, he leaned against Seto, slipping an arm around his slender waist. Was that a subtle tremor that Atem felt running through Seto’s torso? Atem licked his lips in anticipation.

“Good. We can order room service,” Seto said, tapping on the glass to signal Isono to go.

“Seto,” Atem said, a thought hitting him, “what if I dared you to kiss me?”

Seto stared at him intently, his blue eyes gleaming in the dark interior of the limousine. “Dare? Is this some sort of game?”

“No, wait, it’s that you’re so particular about kissing in public, and most of the time you act as though this is a public space. I just wanted to get you to kiss me is all.”

“Well, then, why don’t you just ask me? I may say that life is a game, but this, between us …” he shook his head and, taking Atem’s face in his hand, gently caressed his cheek with his thumb. “I’m not risking that on a roll of the dice.” Then, pulling Atem into a tight embrace, he pushed him back into the soft leather and kissed him passionately. Atem reached around Seto’s neck, tangling his fingers in his soft hair.

Much later, Seto pulled back a little, leaving Atem breathless. “Satisfied?”

“Not yet,” Atem admitted. In fact, his desire for Seto had become more urgent. “If you want, you can get even by challenging _me_ to a dare,” he offered. He was almost hopeful, but was sure that Seto wouldn’t bite.

Seto shrugged. “I don’t want to dare you to love me. Isn’t it enough that I dare to love?”

Atem had to admit to himself that it was a bit of a miracle. Before Seto could think any more about it, he said, “But I _do_ love you, Seto,” and pulled him back down for another lingering kiss.

_~ Fin ~_

**Author's notes ...**

I really want to thank everyone for all the support I've gotten lately, for this and my other stories. :)  I can't tell you how much I appreciated it! If you're wondering whether it motivates me to write more of this stuff ... yes. ;) (Comments are also greatly appreciated, even constructive criticism.)

Well, guys, done at last! I hope it was worth your faithful patience! Although I had ideas as to how to extend this story, I probably would have left it at one chapter if I hadn't received so many requests to carry it further. I really hope that it worked for you. I will admit, though, that this is one of the hardest stories I've attempted. These characters really didn't seem to want to get things going on their own! Pesky things ...

Anyway, I'm going to do my darnedest to get my other current story going again. I have a whole bunch of Prideshipping ideas, but I'm not sure which my next story will be, it will depend on which one I get near finishing first. The next story will be hosted solely here unless something happens at Fanfiction.com so that I can post a new story there.

Until next time, happy reading,

~ DD

**Author's Note:**

> Anyway! I really hope you are enjoying this story. I haven't gotten a lot of input on the extension of this story so far and I'm really hoping for a few comments ... but if not, I suppose I'll live. ;) Finally, this story is now up-to-date! Hurrah!
> 
> Posting notes. I've found I can't get a new story to post at my other site, so I'm moving stuff. Since this is a new story and I have a new chapter, I've decided to try to catch up with it. While I have a second new story and am posting two other old stories ... if this all slows down, I hope you'll forgive me.


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